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Negro Registration in Louisiana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

John H. Fenton  and
Kenneth N. Vines
John H. Fenton
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Kenneth N. Vines
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Extract

The 1944 action of the Supreme Court voiding the white primary ended the last effective legal block to Negro voter registration in the South. After that, resort to legal steps to block Negro registration was either outlawed by the courts or else could only be a delaying device. In the state of Louisiana, however, the decision in Smith v. Allwright did not result in Negro registration comparable to white registration. In 1956, twelve years later, 30 percent of the potential Negro voting population was registered, compared to 73 percent of the whites. This study is an investigation of some factors in that discrepancy, and in particular, of the differences in registration between Catholic and Protestant areas.

An important characteristic of Negro registration in Louisiana is the extreme range of variation to be found among the several parishes. Table I shows 17 parishes with fewer than 20 percent of the eligible Negroes registered, and 11 parishes with 70 percent or more of the potential Negro vote registered. Therefore, the statewide “average” percentage of Negro registration has little meaning without more detailed interpretation.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , September 1957 , pp. 704 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1957

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References

1 Current estimates on population figures were obtained as follows: (1) The estimated total population of each parish for 1956 was obtained from Sales Management Annual Survey of Buying Power, May 10, 1956. (2) It was assumed that the 1950 ratio of Negroes to the total population in each parish would remain constant. (3) It was assumed that the 1950 ratio of Negroes 21 and over to the total Negro population in each parish would remain constant. (4) Thus by taking percentages of the 1956 total population estimate as derived from the 1950 census, a 1956 estimate was obtained for the potential Negro vote in each parish.

2 The authors wish to acknowledge the aid of the Southern Regional Council in support of this project. The Louisiana project was part of a Southern-wide survey of Negro registration and voting sponsored by the Council.

3 See Bertrand, Alvin L., The Many Louisianas, Bulletin #46, Louisiana State University, Agricultural Experiment Station, June, 1955, p. 21Google Scholar.

4 The more “permissive” attitude of the French-Catholic parishes may be demonstrated additionally by comparison of its record on race relations with the northern parishes on such matters as rates of lynching, 1900–1941; and the number of racially integrated state colleges. It waa also confirmed in interviews with both Negroes and whites from the two areas.

5 It should be noted, however, that resistance to Negro registration is stiffening in North-Central Louisiana. Efforts to purge Negroes from the rolls are being vigorously pressed by Citizens Council groups in the section. For a detailed statement of the procedures being used there, see the letter from Assistant Attorney General Olney to Senator Douglas, Congressional Record, Vol. 103 (August 1, 1957), pp. 12156–7 (daily ed.)Google Scholar; New York Times, August 4, 1957, which, however, misplaced the parishes cited as in the southern part of the state.

6 See, for example, Key, V. O. Jr., Southern Politics (New York, 1949)Google Scholar; and Price, Hugh Douglas, Negro and Southern Politics, A Chapter of Florida History (New York, 1957)Google Scholar.

7 Slave and Citizen: The Negro in the Americas (New York, 1947)Google Scholar.

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