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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Oct. 18, 1963
Registration Barriers Confront Civil Rights
By Al Kuettner United Press International
In the field of civil rights, registration of Negro voters has been one of the steepest hurdles.
Outright intimidation, subtle pressure and barriers in the form of qualification tests have helped keep the number of Negro voters at a fraction of those qualified to vote. Lethargy has done the rest.
IN THE SOUTH, seven states now provide for testing; Alabama Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
Bearing down on voting rights, the Justice Department has 26 cases of voter discrimination and seven involving alleged voter intimidation in the courts.
Wednesday, in the state of Georgia, a significant event occurred that may remove the state from the test list by next year. A state election laws study committee voted unanimously to ask the 1964 legislature to abolish the tests as a prerequisite to voting.
Georgia then would have one of the more liberal voting programs in the nation. An applicant would have to be 18 or older, a resident of the state one year and a county three months and have no felony (criminal) convictions.
"Except in the 15 or 20 counties where there has been outright intimidation, the big registration problem has been with the Negroes," according to Sylvan Meyer, chairman of the Georgia advisory committee to the civil rights commission. "Many Negroes have felt they could not pass the test so they didn't bother to try to register."
In the 1960 election, Meyer said, Fayette County had 31 Negroes registered to vote, Terrell 51, Seminole 11, Truetlen 45 and Baker none.
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT filed suit in 1958 on behalf of five Negroes in Terrell who flunked the test. One had a Master's Degree. Another suit came in 1962. On Aug. 15 an injunction against the county registrar in the second case was denied and the case is now on appeal.
"What our committee has done is one simple solution to a grave problem," Secretary of State Ben Fortson, chairman of the study group, said. "We have established finally that under the American system of government, everyone has certain rights and privileges learn to read," Fortson said. "We have had compulsory education 40 or 50 years. People should be able to read by now."
Wiley Branton, the Negro lawyer who runs the voter education project which is financed by three big foundations, agreed the Georgia recommendation would have strong effect in rural areas particularly in southwest Georgia.
"But we are also working on something that laws can't do much about," Branton said. "That's the lack of interest in voting. This is our problem in areas like Atlanta where there are no signs of voter intimidation."
Conservatives Consider Macmillan's Successor
LONDON—(UPI)—Out of the British equivalent of the "smoke-filled room" will come the name of the man selected to succeed retiring Harold Macmillan as Conservative party leader and Prime Minister.
With the announcement of Macmillan's impending resignation, influential men in the party began sounding out the three components of Tory power—Parliament members, protective candidates and local party workers.
THE MEN WHO do the sounding are usually eminent figures who, for one reason or another, are considered outside the race themselves. These men include Lord Chancellor Lord Dilhorne and party cochairman Lord Poole.
This sounding-out gives an initial idea of the support each candidate commands within the party. Other leaders—cabinet ministers, elder statesmen and the like, and in this case Macmillan himself—are consulted for their opinions of each candidate's ability. Even though he has been inactive, 88-year-old Sir Winston Churchill's views are among those sought.
When there is a contest for the premiership, as there is now, the party king-makers obviously must find out which candidate is acceptable to the greatest number of persons.
FROM THIS WELTER of conferences, consultations and corridor deals emerges a consensus—the name of a possible new leader.
Then a small group of party eminents, take the decisive step, the visit to Queen Elizabeth II. They tell her the name of their candidate. She in turn calls the candidate to Buckingham Palace and asks him to form a government.
By this time events are moving fast—so fast that the new Premier is often known before the last step is taken. That step is the calling together of the MP's, candidates and party workers in a large conclave to "elect" the new leader.
Books by three faculty members at KU have been chosen as part of the newly formed White House library.
THE NAME of the candidate is presented and ratified. The vote always has been automatic.
White House Library Includes KU Books
Among the 1,780 titles selected after more than a year's screening are:
What would happen if the Queen should reject the party's nominee? Queen Victoria tried it once, when she ignored the selection of Sir William Harcourt in 1894 and chose Lord Roseberry instead. Roseberry's government collapsed in a few months. Elizabeth is expected to accept the party choice.
- "Our National Park Policy" (Johns Hopkins Press, 1961), by John Ise, professor emeritus of economics
- "The Grassland of North America" (Lawrence, 1947), by James Claude Malin, professor emeritus of history
- The books were selected by a committee headed by James T. Babb, Yale University's librarian, who consulted with leading United States scholars, librarians and publishers.
- "Their Brothers' Keepers" (Rutgers, 1960), by Clifford S. Giffin, associate professor of history.
KU Cage Team Displaced; No Bother Says Coach Harp
Ise's and Malin's books are included in the land and agriculture section of the library. Giffin's is in the religion section.
The collection is intended to be a reference library for the Presidents, their families, cabinet officers and advisers.
Dick Harp's cagers are currently part of the world's displaced population. They cannot practice in Allen Field House. In the meantime they are drilling in Robinson Gymnasium.
Coach Dick Harp said that the situation had not been "any real inconvenience to the team."
"There have been a lot of great teams to practice in Robinson," Harp said with a laugh.
THE FIELD HOUSE playing floor was supposed to be ready for last Tuesday's opening basketball practice. It still is not completely assembled, and will not be ready before next Monday.
been working on it for the last six days. Replogle said he has no permanent staff and has to use janitors and student employees.
"We didn't have enough men or enough time to put the floor together," explained Glenn Replogle, head of the physical plant for the athletic department. Six men have
The floor is divided into 196 sections and is stored in the south end of the field house in the off season.
"WHEN IT IS re-assembled the goals must be erected first and placed level with each other," Replogle said. Then runner boards, called "mud sills," are put down and wedge blocks placed on top of them. The wedge blocks can be adjusted to make the floor level exactly 10 feet beneath the goals.
"This is the tedious part," Replogle said. It took surveyors two days to level the blocks before the floor could be mounted, he said.
It must be cleaned and painted before it is ready for use.
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