The year-old, slow-starting federal Civil Rights Commission ran up against its first Southern-built stone wall last week in Macon County, Ala., where Negroes outnumber whites 6-1, but white voters outnumber Negro voters 2-1. Assigned to gather evidence on complaints that the county board of registrars discriminated against Negroes in registering voters, two CRC agents went to the board's office in Tuskegee, asked to look at registration records. The board's Chairman Emmett P. Livingston telephoned Alabama's Attorney General John Patterson in Montgomery. Registration records are not public documents, ruled Patterson, who will be elected Governor in November. On Patterson's advice to...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
