With Mississippi likely to vote for Barack Obama for president today, we should all remember how far we’ve come since the bad old days.
In the early 1960s, Mississippi was the poorest state in the nation. 86% of all non-white families lived below the national poverty line. In addition, the state had a terrible record of black voting rights violations. In the 1950s, Mississippi was 45% black, but only 5% of voting age blacks were registered to vote. Some counties did not have a single registered black voter. Whites insisted that blacks did not want to vote, but this was not true. Many blacks wanted to vote, but they worried, and rightfully so, that they might lose their job. In 1962, over 260 blacks in Madison County overcame this fear and waited in line to register. 50 more came the next day. Only seven got in to take the test over the two days, walking past a sticker on the registrar’s office door that bore a Confederate battle flag next to the message “Support Your Citizens’ Council.” Once they got in, they had to take a test designed to prevent them from becoming registered. In 1954, in response to increasing literacy among blacks, the test, which originally asked applicants to “read or interpret” a section of the state constitution, was changed to ask applicants to “read and interpret” that document. This allowed white registrars to decide whether or not a person passed the test. Most blacks, even those with doctoral degrees, “failed.” In contrast, most whites passed, no matter what their education level. In George County, one white applicant’s interpretation of the section “There shall be no imprisonment for debt” was “I thank that a Neorger should have 2 years in collage before voting because he don’t under stand.” (sic) He passed.
I’ll be very interested to see from the Exit Polls how well Obama did with the white voters. I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Regardless, I think today is a good day to remember all the people that sacrificed during the Freedom Summer and all those that fought to give the vote to all the people of Mississippi.
