Change of Mind

(TIME, April 10, 1944) -- Because Lonnie E. Smith is a Negro, election judges in Houston, Texas barred him from the polls in a 1940 Democratic primary. Lonnie Smith saw his lawyers. This week the Supreme Court of the U.S. decided (8-to-1) that Texas must not bar Negroes from voting in primaries because of race. This had meaning for all Southern states -- although poll taxes and "educational requirements" will still keep many a Negro from voting.

The Court had scrapped a nine-year-old precedent. In 1935 the Justices had decided that voting in the primaries was a "privilege" which the Democratic Party could extend or withhold- something like using the lounge in an exclusive club. This week they decided that those who miss out on the Southern Democratic primaries miss out on the election.

What most annoyed Lone-Dissenter Justice Owen Roberts was a Court which keeps changing its mind. Said he: Supreme Court decisions are beginning to look like "a restricted railroad ticket, good for this day and train only."

July 17, 1944 THE SOUTH White Primary

Independence day dawned cool and cloudy in Atlanta. Soon after the polls were open for Georgia's Democratic primary, two well-dressed Negroes drove up to a small drug store on the south side. The Negroes went in, politely asked the white woman in charge of registration lists for their ballots. When the registrar was unable to find their names on any list, the Negroes left as quietly as they come. An Atlanta cop, placidly picking his teeth in front of the drug store, remarked: "We don't have no trouble with niggers out here."

A.T. Walden, Negro Atlanta attorney and State head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, appeared at Precinct B. His own precinct, where he votes regularly in general elections, was in a Negro neighborhood. It was closed for the Democratic primaries. When Lawyer Walden gave his name and address, he was told, "That's in Precinct 3-B. I'm sorry, but we have no one listed for voting at that address." He argued. O.L. Walker, election official, said firmly: "This primary is for white voters only." Both sides were careful, soft- spoken, scrupulously polite.

In spite of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Texas case that Negroes must be allowed to vote in Southern primaries, Negroes did not vote last week in Georgia. In spite of the fact that some 5,000 Negroes had registered and paid poll taxes in Fulton County (Atlanta), Negro leaders saw to it that only enough Negroes should appear (and be turned down) at the polls to make a test case in the courts.

The U.S. press, applauding the lack of violence, tentatively hoped that the South might be growing more tolerant. "White supremacy" was still a burning issue, but there were some indications that the South may be slowly reconciling itself to the idea of ballots for Negroes -- provided they do not clutter up white voting places.

A Sunday columnist for the liberal-minded Atlanta Constitution wrote, in a blunt editorial which may have made many a white Southerner uncomfortable: "We cannot much longer continue to subject Negroes to 'taxation without representation' or draft them to jeopardize their lives in defense of a democracy which denies them the right of franchise."

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