Nation: Challenge in Alabama

Nowhere in the Deep South has the 1965 Voting Rights Act had a headier effect than in Alabama. In the seven months since its passage, Negro registrants in the state have doubled (to 221,329), and are expected to increase even further. In the May 3 Democratic primary, a dozen Alabama Negroes are running for the lily-white state legislature, 50 others for local office.

With Negroes now enjoying virtually equal registration strength in ten black-belt counties, black candidates hope to win up to 30 primary contests. In a number of races, though, civil rights leaders prefer to manipulate the balance of power. One likely white beneficiary is Wilson Baker, Selma’s public-safety director, who is challenging Dallas County’s bullyboy sheriff, Jim Clark. Baker’s restraint during last year’s impassioned civil rights demonstrations may have also won him hefty non-Negro support. The reason: many Dallas County whites blame Clark’s cattle-prodding tactics for dramatizing Negro demands, thus helping to assure passage of the federal voting law.