WSJ Article on Clinton, La. 8/27/65
From: jpshinley@my-dejanews.com
Date: Sun, Jan 10, 1999 19:01 EST
Message-id: <77bcd2$85l$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
Wall Street Journal August 27, 1965 P8
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Changing Clinton
U.S. Registrars Likely to Have Big Impact
by Fred Zimmerman
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Clinton, la - Nothing much ever happens here, especially during the
hot and muggy month of August. The banker sits around the lobby in
shirt sleeves, idly chatting with anyone who wanders in. The sheriff
can afford to spend a lot of time tending his appliance store, and
the mayor pretty well runs his office from the auto repair shop
he runs.
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But a few days ago this easy-going tranquility was rudely disrupted,
and the men sitting in front of the general store or eating poor
boy sandwiches at the malt shop have been grumbling about it ever
since. Six U.S. Civil Service employees drove in from Baton Rouge
30 miles to the South, along with a couple of FBI agents, and began
registering Negroes to vote under the new Voting Rights Act.
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...
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"We've been occipied by the Feds," drawls District Attorney Richard
Kilbourne... "And now the Feds are fixing it so the Negroes can take
over" ...
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...Although potential Negro voters in the Parish outnumber whites,
only 187 Negroes were registered before the Federal Examiners came in,
compared with 2,726 whites. But during their first week the Federal
Registrars ... signed up 1,595 new Negro voters.
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...
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Here in East Feliciana Parish, there seems to be ample evidence
to support the Justice Department's assumption that local officials
would refuse to go along voluntarily with the new law. Besides the
fact that only 187 Negroes were on the voting rolls when the law was
signed, public accomodations in the Parish are rigidly segregated,
Klan-inspired cross burnings have been frequent, and civil rights
workers say they have been beaten by white toughs and unjustly
arrested and jailed during past registration efforts.
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The Parish registrar, Henry Earl Palmer, had signed up only about
120 Negroes in the two years since the Justice Department won an
injunction forcing him to stop his alleged use of literacy tests
to discriminate against Negro applicants. Under the 1963 injunction,
he was required to send a monthly report to a Federal Court in New
Orleans on how many Negro applicants came to his office and how
many he registered. For good measure, the FBI dropped by regularly
to check his records.
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When the Federal registrars opened for business here, the first
person in line was Chris Weatherspoon, a 63-year-old Negro from
nearby Wilson, La. Mr. Weatherspoon, who farms cotton, corn, peas
and potatoes on a 15-acre tract that he owns, says, "I've tried to
registrar five times with Mr. Henry Earl Palmer, and each time he'd
say, 'Chris, you missed just one word on the test.'" ...
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Perhaps reflecting the natural irritation of a man who has had
some of his duties pulled out from under him by six representatives
of the Federal government, Mr. Palmer won't talk about the
injunction, the Federal registrars, the likelihood of rain, or
anything else with a reporter. "No comment whatsover," he snapped
at a recent visitor. "I've got nothing to say -- nothing."
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But Mr. Palmer's sentiments on racial matters aren't hard to
discern. A poster on the wall behind his desk shows the picture,
widely circulated in Dixie, of the Rev. Martin Luther King in the
front row of a classroom. The headline reads, "Martin Luther King
at Communist training school."
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...
[end of excerpts]
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Jerry Shinley
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