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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 23. Trends and Possibilities - 5. The Stake of the North
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51 6 An American Dilemma
grounds.^^ One Southerner—who was not arguing for enfranchising the
Negroes but for their deportation—wrote early in the century:
In the matter of the franchise, the South first desperately intimidated the negro;
then systematically cheated him without semblance of law: then cheated him legally;
and now defrauds him of his political rights in a duly constitutional fashion with
the consent, if not the aid of the United States Supreme Court.^®
It is generally held that the Supreme Court acted in agreement with and
actually expressed what was then the general sentiment even in the North.
The North had gotten tired of the Negro problem and, anyhow, saw no
immediate alternative other than to let the white Southerners have their
own way with their Negroes. But it must not be forgotten that the deci-
sions of the Court had themselves a substantial share in the responsibility
for the solidification of the Northern apathy. This was also before the
great Negro migration: the Negro vote in the North was still small
and safely belonged to the Republican party without any particular political
compensation.
The Supreme Court is, however, seemingly changing its attitude and is
again looking more to the spirit of the Reconstruction Amendments and
not only to their possible loopholes. Since at the same time the legal founda-
tion for Negro discrimination in the South is dissolving, it will be easier
to win cases for disfranchised Negroes if they begin again to demand their
constitutional right in the state courts. It would be no great surprise if the
Supreme Court reversed its earlier stand and, by declaring the primary to
be an election, rendered the white primary unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the forces for social reform in Congress are feeling the
opposition from Southern conservative members more and more cumber-
some. They are increasingly irritated when they remember that, owing to
the peculiar electoral system and the restricted political participation in the
Southern states, congressmen from the South are not truly representative
of the region. “In the 1940 election about 10% of the voting population of
the United States . . . was able to elect . . . one-fourth of the members of
Congress,”^® writes a Southern liberal, and this truth is dawning upon many
Northerners too. The stage is being set for attempts to free at least the
national elections from poll tax requirements.’* Both the labor vote and
* The current effort to abolish the poll tax by federal legislation is again bringing up the
much-debated question of the constitutionality of federal laws to regulate federal elections.
The opponents of such laws quote the first part of Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution:
“The times, places, and manner of holding elections fur Senators and Representatives shall
be piescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof . . The advocates of federal action
call attention to the continuation of this Section of the Constitution : “but the Congress may
at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing
Senators.” In view of the latter statement, it seems to be a myth, carefully fostered by
reactionaries, that Congress cannot take a hand in controlling the election of its members.
In maintaining this myth, these reactionaries have referred to irrelevant sections of the
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