The Black Ballot

One of the biggest imponderables in this year's elections is the impact of the South's new Negro voters, 325,000 of whom have been registered in the five states principally affected by the civil rights movement. The 1965 Voting Rights Act, followed this year by the U.S. Supreme Court's abolition of state poll taxes, has already wrought subtle changes in the style and structure of Southern politics. The transformation is bound to quicken as more and more Negroes are enfranchised.

One probability is that Negroes will not necessarily support Negro candidates. To attract their votes, many white segregationist politicians have already markedly muted their pronouncements on racial issues. In Mississippi, where the militant Freedom Democratic Party last week entered a slate of integrationist candidates for Congress (five Negroes and one white), N.A.A.C.P. Leader Dr. D. L. Conner allowed that members of his race "would do well to vote for sympathetic whites who are intelligent and fair."

Thus, though Mississippi now has 117,500 new Negro voters, many of them regard the F.D.P. as too radical, and only two of its candidates are given any chance of election. The strongest challengers are Lawrence Guyot, 26, F.D.P. Mississippi chairman, who filed as an opponent against Congressman William Colmer, 76, and the Rev. Edwin King, 30, a white chaplain at predominantly Negro Tougaloo College, who is taking on Representative John Bell Williams, 47.

Bloc for Ability. As with any ethnic or religious group, Negroes will on occasion undoubtedly deliver a bloc vote for their own candidates, particularly if they are qualified and appealing, or challenge a segregationist.

Last week in Portsmouth, Va., a Negro dentist, James W. Holley III, 39, became the first non-white ever to win the Democratic nomination for the city council. His victory was swung by a Negro ward that gave him a lopsided 990 ballots v. 114 for two white rivals. Nonetheless, most Negroes were apparently voting for Holley not because he is a Negro but because they--like many whites--respect his long record of participation in community activities. The potential Negro vote may be greatly shrunk by political apathy, born of centuries of disenfranchisement and ignorance, and mirrored in the fact that still only 41% of eligible Southern Negroes have registered.

X for Apathy. Nowhere is the X-factor of Negro participation more potentially decisive than in Virginia, where three Democratic incumbents who personify the Old Dominion's conservative tradition are being challenged in the July 12th primary. U.S. Representative Howard Worth ("Judge") Smith, 83, longtime chairman of the House Rules Committee, is seeking his 19th House term, faces a Democratic opponent for the first time in more than a decade. State Assemblyman George C. Rawlings, 44, a Fredericksburg attorney and avowed liberal, plans to make Smith's obstructionism on civil rights and other contemporary issues the focus of his campaign. Moderate State Senator William B. Spong, 45, is attempting to oust U.S. Senator Absalom Willis Robertson, 78, and Alexandria Attorney Armistead Boothe is trying for the seat of U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr.

Few give Rawlings more than an outside chance of overcoming Judge Smith's longtime reservoir of respect and affection. Admitting that what he calls "the dinosaur vote" is still strong in Smith's bailiwick, Rawlings hopes that the district's increased Negro vote may prove the decisive factor--as it could in the other two races. Statewide, 61,096 more Virginia Negroes are enfranchised than in 1964, increasing total Negro voting strength to 205,000, or 19.7% of the Old Dominion's 1964 election turnout. The increase is particularly significant in Virginia, since for years less than 20% of voting-age citizens have taken part in the elections that have kept the Byrd Establishment in power.

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