Black Setback in Mississippi

FOR blacks in Mississippi, the summer and fall of 1971 have been the most hopeful months since the high-water mark of the civil rights movement in the mid-'60s. During the years since passage of the Voting Rights Act, voter-registration drives have put 275,000 new black voters on the rolls. In eleven counties, blacks hold voting majorities, and overall they now amount to 28% of the registered electorate. If all blacks of voting age were registered, they would make up 33% of the registered voters in the state. With Charles Evers, brother of slain Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers, spearheading an independent ticket in the race for Governor, Mississippi blacks decided to challenge the white majority by offering 284 candidates for posts ranging from the state legislature to the school board to the sheriff's office. Black leaders believed that the concerted campaign would be the turning point in their struggle to claim a share of political power in the state.

It was not to be. Evers polled only 22% of the votes, and lost. So did 240 of the 284 black candidates in the local races. Even in counties where whites were outnumbered blacks failed to gain political control. The massive setback to black hopes resulted from 1) huge turnouts of white voters, and 2) an apparently large number of black voters who supported white candidates.

Voter turnout was the largest in Mississippi history, as high as 90% in some counties, but it was by and large the white voters who came to the polls in unprecedented numbers. The Democratic regulars pressed getting out the vote above all other issues. Mississippi Senators James Eastland and John Stennis traveled down from Washington to stump the state with a single message: go to the polls Nov. 2.

Believing Whites. The effect was to swamp black candidates in many places. In the city of Jackson and Hinds County, 71,000 voters went to the polls and Black Lawyer Jack Young won just 13,900 votes. Basic political techniques --voter education, organizing a big turnout on election day--have not yet been mastered by the blacks. Some blacks, Young also believes, voted for his white opponent: "Black folks still believe what white folks say; they don't think they can believe in a black man."

Cleve McDowell lost a legislative race in Sunflower County by a 2-to-l margin despite a 57% black edge in registered voters. Says McDowell: "The problem is getting them to understand that a black leader can look out for them." Even the charismatic Evers was hurt by the apparent failure of a black bloc to develop: his 158,000 votes represented little more than half of the black registered voters.

Some black candidates blamed Evers' quixotic campaign--intended more as a vehicle to encourage black political participation than a realistic run on the statehouse--with contributing to their defeat. Says McDowell: "As a local candidate with a realistic chance of winning, we didn't get a penny from national resources. All the national money went into the more glamorous races that had no chance of winning." Added another black politician: "Charlie said he was going to turn out the vote. Well, he did --the white vote." Evers replied with charges of white manipulation at the polls and called for more federal supervision. There were scattered reports of intimidation, harassment and other irregularities during the vote counting.

The campaign was by no means a total loss for Mississippi blacks. For the first time, black candidates played an important role in Mississippi politics and their disappointing showing is likely to improve. Governor-elect William Waller broke the vituperative pattern of past elections, studiedly omitting racial references in his campaign rhetoric and emphasizing the need for harmony. After his defeat, Evers congratulated Waller for running a "clean campaign." The very fact of his candidacy, Evers said, shows how far blacks have come in Mississippi: "For me to be running for Governor in the state where my brother was killed and for none of us to get our heads bashed in--it's a helluva lot. We changed the whole political system of this state. It won't ever be the same again."

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