Whites Defended With Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965 as a way to stop local governments from finding ways to keep minorities from the polls. Though adopted as a means to give political power to blacks largely disenfranchised due to various Reconstruction failures, the act has just been cited in a lawsuit on behalf of whites. A U.S. District Judge has ruled that the practices of Noxubee County, Mississippi Democratic Party leader Ike Brown "manipulated the political process in ways specifically intended and designed to impair and impede the participation of white voters and to dilute their votes." Among the methods cited as evidence of Mr. Brown's racial discrimination were a proclivity for holding party caucuses in private homes and a habit of only inviting black people to meetings. The judge wrote that "there is no doubt from the evidence presented at trial that Brown, in particular, is firmly of the view that blacks, being the majority race in Noxubee County, should hold all elected offices, to the exclusion of whites..." Noxubee County is approximately 70% black.

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