The Augusta Courier

By ROY V. HARRIS

Some people in Atlanta can't understand why most of the other sections of Georgia insist on keeping the County Unit System.

If they would read their history they would know that Thomas Jefferson, and the founders of our government had a mortal fear of the mobs of the cities.

The people of Georgia, back in the '90's, had a taste of what the mobs of the cities could do and they then determined to establish and keep the County Unit System.

In 1894, Major J. C. C. Black, of Augusta, ran against Thomas E. Watson for Congress in the Old Tenth Congressional District.

The leaders in Augusta determined to defeat Watson. Back in those days, the Negroes were voting in large numbers. So, they herded up all of the Negroes in Augusta, and all they could get from surrounding counties in Georgia and South Carolina, in the old wagon yards the night before the election.

They fed them barbecue and liquor all night and the next morning they loaded them up on wagons and hauled them from one voting precinct to another and voted them as many times as they possibly could before the polls closed.

Consequently, they voted more people in Richmond County during that election than there were men, women and children of both races living in the county.

Watson contested the election and Major Black, knowing of the actual facts of his election, proposed to Watson that he be permitted to take the oath of office and then he would resign and permit a special election to be called and they would run it off.

This one incident furnished all the ammunition needed to sell the people of the State on a County Unit System of voting in the primaries.

The elections in Atlanta, in recent years, have added fuel to the old flames and stirred them anew in all the rural areas of this State.

Atlanta has grown so big and great until they still fear the mobs of the cities.

Atlanta has just finished going through the process of electing a mayor.

They have had two primaries. There were five candidates in the first primary held on Wednesday, September 13, 1961.

In the first primary, Ivan Allen emerged with a total of (in round numbers) 38,000 votes, Lester Maddox with 20,000, Charlie Brown with 17,000, "Muggsy" Smith with 15,000, and Aldredge, 8,000.

Then, the run-off was necessary on the 22nd of September between Ivan and Lester Maddox, the two top men.

Ivan Allen ran with the full support of practically all of the Negro leaders and Lester Maddox ran as a segregation candidate.

Mayor Bill Hartsfield, several weeks ago, stated that the man with the most money would get the Negro vote and would be elected Mayor of Atlanta.

He stated to friends that he could not go along with another friend because Ivan Allen had the most money and would get the Negro votes.

His prediction proved to be true.

We do not have the figures on the run-off primary and are not able, therefore, to analyze those figures.

So, let's analyze the figures on the first primary, held on September 13, 1961, at which three of the five candidates were elected and it was reduced down to two.

Allen came out in the lead with approximately 18,000 more votes than Maddox had.

On election night, Mayor Hartsfield explained the situation by saying that Allen got the rich folks and the Negroes and that Maddox got the votes of the middle class people in Atlanta.

When you take the votes ward by ward and take into consideration the population in these wards, you find his analysis to be true.

Approximately 30,000 Negroes voted and, if so, Allen got more than 20,000 of these votes.

As a matter of fact, Allen's vote paralleled the vote of the Negro candidate for City Council.

This Negro candidate received a total of 38,860 votes in the September 13th primary and was defeated. Allen got 38,820 votes and got in the run-off.

In the first primary, Allen got 40 votes less than the Negro candidate for council.

Now, let's analyze the Negroes' vote.

The Eighth Ward in Atlanta takes in the Buckhead area where the richest people live and where the ward is composed almost entirely of white people.

The Fifth Ward begins along about Ponce de Leon Avenue and runs along both sides of Peachtree Street out to where it joins the Eighth Ward. This ward is practically solid white.

Yet, in these two white wards, the Negro received 9048 of his 38,000 votes.

There were approximately 30,000 Negroes voting and he received the solid Negro vote.

So, you can see where the Negro candidate for council got his votes.

Allen's vote in nearly every box practically paralleled the vote of the Negro candidate. Sometimes the Negro would have a few more votes than would Allen and sometimes Allen would have a few more than the Negro, depending upon how many Negroes lived in that community.

Now, "Muggsy" Smith got into the vote of Allen and received some four or five thousand Negro votes.

But Allen got in the neighborhood of 25,000 of them.

The pattern of voting for the Negro candidate for council and Allen was so close until it is perfectly clear that the two ran a joint campaign and had it not been for these 25,000 Negro votes, Allen would have probably tailed the ticket.

Now, Allen spent more money than has ever been spent by a candidate running for Mayor in the City of Atlanta. It is reported by professionals in the City of Atlanta that Allen and his group spent in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars and these professionals are hardly ever wrong in their estimates as to Atlanta politics.

So, what happened is that the rich folks on the North side financed Allen and bought the Negroes and this was the backbone of Allen's campaign in the first primary.

We say he bought the Negroes because Allen was not alone in going along with the Negroes in advocating integration of the white and Negro races in Atlanta.

Charlie Brown went just as far as Allen did in his advocacy of integration, and then, Charlie has had a background of advocating and practicing integration for two years.

During the last two years, Charlie has been attending Negro churches with members of his family and reliable people have reported to us that they have seen Charlie at these gatherings shaking hands with all the Negroes and even putting his arm around some of the sisters in the congregation.

Yet, even after Charlie has gone to these lengths in his effort to get the Negro vote, he found out that money speaks a louder voice with the Negroes than mixing with them and hugging the Negro sisters.

Charlie hardly scratched amongst the Negroes.

But "Muggsy" Smith did get some Negro votes because "Muggsy" had a little money, too, and he managed somehow or other to get one group of them to support him.

The fact is that Allen, Brown and Smith concentrated all of their efforts in the Negro communities.

There's where all the rallies were held. There's where the campaign speeches were made. There's where the promises were made.

Each of them figured that his destiny lay with the Negroes and, consequently, they made an all-out effort to get the Negro vote.

Each went about as far in their promises of integration and racial equality as a human being could go.

It was the greatest effort ever made to corral the Negro vote.

But the Negro in Atlanta, as well as elsewhere, likes cash and he took the cash instead of the promises and the petting.

Now, to back up my claim that the wealthy people in the Fifth and Eighth Wards backed Allen and Williamson (the Negro candidate for council), let's compare their votes in these two wards.

In the Fifth Ward, Allen got 5594 votes and the Negro got 4380.

In the Eighth Ward, Allen got 5758 and the Negro got 4668.

Now, mind you, these two wards have the greatest percentage of white people living within their boundaries than any of the other wards in the city.

Let's look at the results in a few boxes in the Negro communities.

Let's take C in Ward 3. Allen received 1298 votes and the Negro, 1764.

In F in Ward 3, Allen received 1704 and the Negro, 1953. In I in Ward 3, Allen received 1234 and the Negro, 1537. In L in Ward 3, Allen received 737 and the Negro 841.

Look at these results in the Sixth Ward where there is a big Negro population. In F and G, Allen, 1104 and Williamson, 1005. In H, Allen 1166 and Williamson, 1314. In I, Allen 1246 and Williamson 1214.

And so it went, Allen and Williamson neck and neck.

Without the Negro vote, Allen wouldn't have been known in the September 13th primary.

Now, these details give you an idea of what a difficult situation it is to run in a place like Atlanta.

In the first place, it costs too much. It costs at least $250,000 for a candidate to run for Governor in Georgia today and if you do away with the County Unit System it would cost at least a million dollars to wage a successful campaign for Governor in this State, as it now does in Florida and some other States surrounding us.

Now, raise the price of running for Governor and United States Senator in Georgia and you will be in the same fix as they are in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, the very wealthy have been getting together, controlling the Negro vote and naming the Mayors of that City.

Do away with the County Unit System and candidates for Governor will be dependent upon this same group for their money and upon the Negroes for their votes.

The Negroes are organized and constitute the balance of power.

Here's another reason why the people in the rest of Georgia insist upon keeping the County Unit System.

They know that the Negro vote is a bloc vote and that they vote in a bloc and the Negroes have been the balance of power in naming the Mayor of the City of Atlanta for the last four elections.

Do away with the County Unit System and they would hold the balance of power in State politics.

Practically all of the rallies and political meetings during the recent campaign in Atlanta were held in the Negro areas. Four of the candidates were there fighting for the Negro vote and making promises to get the Negro vote.

There were no similar meetings held in the white areas and no such determined effort to get the white vote.

All of the candidates - except Lester Maddox - bowed and scraped to the Negroes in a desperate effort to get the Negro vote.

Just do away with the County Unit System and that will be the pattern of State politics in Georgia.

In most of the big cities in the country, these minority blocks furnish the vote and the racketeers furnish the money.

The way Atlanta is going, they are headed in that same direction and if they do away with the County Unit System in this State, racketeers in the various cities will be financing the politics and the bloc votes will be selling to one side or the other and determining the outcomes of the elections.

There is still abroad in this State - and the rest of the land - a mortal fear of the mobs of the cities in politics.

The County Unit System is the only protection we have against these mobs.

Of course, it is still possible to organize them in the cities and other isolated places, but it isn't possible to bring 159 counties under the rule of the mob, or the bloc vote.

So, to the people of Georgia, I say: Look to your County Unit System and keep it inviolate.

Otherwise, you will have an integrationist, like Ivan Allen, as your Governor.