Atlanta Daily World

Sees
Electoral
Change
Aimed At
Minority
Voters

COLUMBIA, S. C. - NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins countered arguments to change the electoral college this week by calling for "free access to the ballot box" for southern Negroes.

Mr. Wilkins, referring to the fact that only one out of every four southern Negroes is allowed to vote, challenged politicians to "propose a new plan fair to all voters."

Mr. Wilkins pointed out that efforts to curb the electoral college in the past, "were made with the objective of cutting down the influence of the Negro vote in large urban centers in the North."

"Congressman Gossett of Texas joined some years ago with the then Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Mass., in sponsoring a resolution which Rep. Gossett frankly described as an effort to cut down the Negro vote in the North." Mr. Wilkins said.

"The resolution lost in Congress as did a later one by the then Senator (now Governor) Price Daniel of Texas.

"So you see, the past efforts aimed at the electoral college have really been aimed at the Negro

(Continued On Page 4, Col. 5)
Sees Electoral Change
(Continued from Page One)
voter." he said
ADDRESSES RALLY Addressing himself to current critics of the system, Mr. Wilkins said. "let them have fair debate on all proposed changes." He spoke to more than 1,000 civil rights enthusiasts attending a mass rally sponsored here by the South Carolina Conference of NAACP branches.
"Any change ought to give all voters, regardless of color, free access to the ballot box. If that were done," he asserted, "perhaps the nation would find out how the people feel, not how a small clique feels."
Secretary Wilkins pointed out that Mississippi has a population of more than 2,000,000 person. Over half are of voting age.
"Yet a total of only 109,000 votes were cast Nov. 8. for a slate of unpledged electors," he said. "The nations is being told that the people of Mississippi' have spoken.
"This is the kind of nonsense that will have to be discarded in any new plan." he said.
Turning to the New Orleans crisis, Mr. Wilkins said segregation- ists there have, "supplied a better argument for a federal civil rights law than our side could have ever thought up.
"Gov. Jimmie Davis and his state legislators, assisted by screaming mobs, have done a lobbying job for civil rights unmatched since an Arkansas state trooper barred a teen-age Negro girl from high school with a loaded rifle," he concluded.