c. Based on an examination of available application forms and interrogation of registrars, not at the hearing and not yet a matter of sworn record, the following findings of facts are warranted:

(1) Rejected applications were destroyed approximately 30 days after being rejected, which fact made accurate statistical review of the records impossible. The difficulty of accurate analysis of the records was compounded by the disorderly arrangement of application forms.

(2) The board of registrars has no rules and regulations covering registration.

d. White applications contained significant errors. In one group of 40 white applications examined, all of which were accepted, 17 contained the endorsing signature of only one member of the board.

e. A substantial number of applications of white registered applicants reflected the presence of handwriting of a person other than the applicant. In the majority of such instances the second handwriting was identifiable as that of one of the members of the board.

f. Total 1950 population, 28,892. Negro population, 15,427. White population of voting age, 8,012. Whites registered, 6,521. Negro population of voting age, 7,158. Negroes registered, 200.53

4. Bullock County

a. The board of registrars did not function for about 18 months in the period 1954-56 because of resignations from the board. The vacancies in the board occurred at about the same time that the board was under a court order to register qualified Negro applicants.54

b. The Board did not function from approximately July 1957 until the time of the hearing.55

c. The rules and regulations of the board of registrars provide that a qualified elector can vouch for no more than three applicants during the term of the board of registrars. The term of the board is 4 years. A voucher card index is maintained by the board. The 1956-57 index showed the number of times each registered voter vouched for an applicant. The index establishes that the board considers that a voucher has vouched for an applicant even though the application vouched for is rejected by the board.

d. There are five registered Negroes in Bullock County. One of the five has already vouched for three Negro applicants, none of whom was registered. Another of the five has vouched for two unsuccessful applicants, while the remaining three Negroes have vouched for no applicants.

Population figures from U.S. Census, 1950. Registration figures from Birmingham News, Apr. 20, 1958.

Op. cit. supra note 17, at 273, 274.

Unsworn statement of M. T. Evans, only member of board who had not resigned as of the time Commission agents inspected records of Bullock County.

e. The voucher card index includes cards for white vouchers. Examination of the cards for white vouchers disclosed that although a white voucher may exhaust his opportunities to vouch for applicants, none has exhausted his opportunities on unsuccessful applicants. f. Examination of application forms for white applicants disclosed that approximately 15 white applicants were afforded a second chance in that their first inadequate or improperly completed application was attached to a second corrected application form. Our examination disclosed no Negro applicants who had been afforded this opportunity.

g. Total 1950 population of the county, 16,054. Negro population, 11,185. Negro population of voting age, 5,425. Negroes registered, 5. White population of voting age, 2,633. Whites registered, 2,400.56 5. Lowndes County

a. For many years no Negro has attempted to register. Not a single Negro is in fact registered.56a

b. Fear of physical harm combined with economic pressure, including threats to call loans, failure to grant loans, and economic presure leveled upon Negro businessmen, comprise the basic reasons why Negroes have not attempted to register. Fear of loss of employment, especially among schoolteachers and administrators, is also a serious deterrent to attempts to register.57

From 1954 to 1958, no white applicant seeking registration was rejected.58

d. Estimated population, 18,000, of whom about 15,000 are Negroes and about 3,200 are whites. Whites registered, 2,100. No Negroes are registered.59

6. Wilcox County

a. Only one Negro has attempted to register in Wilcox County in recent history. He was unsuccessful in his attempt.60

b. Other Negroes intending to attempt registration were thwarted by conflicting instructions from officials as to where and how applications should be procured and submitted.61

c. Substantial fears among the Negro population, including fear of economic reprisal and extending to fears of physical violence have deterred potential Negro applicants from attempting registration.62

U.S. Census, 1950. Registration figures for Negroes counted by voting team from records of board. White registration figures from Birmingham News, Apr. 20, 1958.

5 Id. at 200, 201.

* Id. at 217, 218.

Id. at 203.

5 Id. at 185, 186, 187.

* Id. at 217.

" Id. at 220.

Id. at 217, 218.

d. Total 1950 population, 23,476. Negro population, 18,564. White population of voting age, 3,056. Negro population of voting age, 8,218. Whites registered, 3,183. Negroes registered, 0.

TRUTH VERSUS FANCIES

Thus, after almost four months of staff study, investigations, hearings, negotiations, compromises, delays, and court actions, the Commission on Civil Rights was able to lay bare the facts on voting in three Alabama counties.

The Commission had, as Vice Chairman Storey had said in quoting the Senate majority leader, found that it could "gather facts instead of charges"; that it could "sift out the truth from the fancies." But what of the three other counties-Dallas, Wilcox, and Lowndes where Negro citizens obviously are being denied the vote because of their race?

The voting registration records in these counties have not been examined by the Commission. Nor is it likely that they ever will be. Repeated efforts to examine them have met only repeated obstructions and delays. 62A At this writing, the Commission is still awaiting a reply to its letters sent to Alabama asking that arrangements be made for examination of the records in these counties.

Governor Patterson's assertion in December that "Alabama has nothing to hide" was followed in a few weeks by introduction of a bill in the Alabama Senate requiring registrars to destroy within 30 days the applications and questionnaires of rejected applicants for registration. The bill, which passed both houses by unanimous vote, was amended only to make destruction of the records permissive rather than mandatory. The Montgomery Advertiser hailed passage of the bill with the headline: "Alabama Legislature Hurls Legal Punch at U.S. Vote Probe."

Two months after the Commission's December hearing in Montgomery, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an action in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to force the registration of qualified Negroes in Macon County. The suit named as defendants the two surviving members of the Macon County Board of Registrars, Mr. Grady Rogers and Mr. E. P. Livingston. However, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Livingston had meanwhile resigned from the board, so the court dismissed the suit for lack of a party defendant.

A See Hearings on Pending Civil Rights Bills Before a Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. (1959), p. 159 (statement of Joseph S. Clark, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania).

Senate bill 18, as reported in The Birmingham News, Feb. 6, 1959.

AFTERMATH IN BIRMINGHAM: THE ASBURY HOWARD CASE

The facts about voting in some parts of Alabama which were brought out at the Commission's December hearing only hardened the determination of some Alabama citizens to bar Negroes from the voting booths. If this was not made clear by the passage of the bill permitting the destruction of registration applications, then a development in Bessemer, near Birmingham, left little doubt.

Asbury Howard, Sr., a Negro union leader in Bessemer, saw a cartoon in the Kansas City Call, a Negro newspaper. Mr. Howard thought it would be suitable for reproduction on a placard urging Negroes to register and vote. He employed a white sign painter to duplicate the cartoon on the placard.

On Thursday, January 29, 1959, Police Chief George Barron of Bessemer went to the sign painter's shop. The placard was still on the drawing board. It had not been publicly displayed. Chief Barron arrested the sign painter, charging him with violation of section 2572 of the Bessemer City Code, which prohibits the publication of libelous and obscene material. Chief Barron then went to the service station operated by Mr. Howard and arrested him. Later, in jail, Mr. Howard also was charged with violating section 2572.

Trial was set for January 24, 1959, before City Recorder James Hammonds. Negroes who came to the city hall that day were searched before being permitted to enter. White persons who came to hear the trial were not. The sign painter, who did not have a lawyer, entered a plea of guilty.

Asbury Howard's lawyer entered a plea of not guilty. Chief Barron was the sole witness for the city. He testified that he went to the sign painter's office on a "tip," confiscated the sign, learned who had ordered it, and then had arrested Mr. Howard. He conceded that Mr. Howard had committed no offense in his presence that day, nor had he been guilty of loud or boisterous conduct.

Mr. Howard was found guilty as charged. Both he and the sign painter were sentenced to 6 months in jail and ordered to pay $100 fines.

While David H. Wood, counsel for Mr. Howard, was occupied with details necessary for preparing an appeal for both defendants, Police Detective Lawson Grimes told Mr. Howard to leave the courtroom and go downstairs. Mr. Howard met a group of white men, later estimated to number about 40 or 50. Among them was a city policeman named Kendricks. Without provocation, the white men attacked Mr. Howard. His son, Asbury Howard, Jr., called out a warning to his father at the moment of attack. Several white men prevented him from going to his father's aid, drawing knives and

blackjacks from their pockets. As he pressed forward, he, too, was struck, knocked down, and beaten.

A police officer returned to the courtroom to inform Mr. Wood of what had happened, and the attorney hastened to the rescue of the Howards. The younger Howard was taken to jail, charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and released on $600 bond.

Asbury Howard, Sr., was taken to Bessemer General Hospital, where his head wounds were closed with 10 stitches. At this writing, his conviction was still pending appeal.6*

The Alabama story is not ended.

Nationwide newspaper reports, augmented by a statement to the Commission by Mr. Wood, counsel for Mr. Howard, Sr., are the sources of this information.