Word: mississippi
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Teddy v. Temptation. Under the 24th, and latest, amendment to the U.S. Constitution, poll taxes are prohibited in elections for federal offices. However, poll taxes in state and local elections are still permitted, and four states -Alabama, Texas, Virginia and Mississippi-now have such poll taxes. Mississippi's poll tax is $2 a year, the others levy $1.50. What would prevent a state from rushing through a measure establishing a poll tax of, say, $15? To forestall that temptation, Massachusetts' Democratic Senator Teddy Kennedy tacked onto the voting bill yet another amendment, outlawing poll taxes altogether in elections...
Only two states-Alabama and Mississippi-still approach unanimity in their bitter segregationist stand; the next toughest is Louisiana. But there are signs that even these last strongholds are crumbling. Much of the credit for the change must go to businessmen, who were troubled by evidence of economic damage: a sharp decline in the acquisition of new industries and the formation of new jobs, at least partly due to the disastrous publicity provided by the likes of Governor Wallace. Alarmed and irritated by Selma, leaders of Alabama commerce and industry recently called for protection of voting rights...
...that white community leaders, who once tacitly used the white rabble as their outriders "to keep the Negro in his place," found the rabble getting out of hand and have reasserted control. All Southern Governors remain segregationists, but with a difference. Although he won office by spouting racism, Mississippi's Governor Paul Johnson is obviously trying to move the state toward greater accommodation on the civil rights front. He still defends his state's too-lenient treatment of racist killers, but he works closely with the FBI in curbing the Klan (in fact, he himself has been threatened...
...estimated maximum possible total of 5,000,000 Negro votes in the South. When Negroes achieve their full political potential, they will wield a powerful influence; they comprise more than 30% of the adult population in five of Alabama's eight congressional districts, in three of Mississippi's five districts, and in three of South Carolina's six districts. Although so far, pitifully few Negroes hold office in the South, there are some significant omens: at least two Southern U.S. Congressmen, one from Georgia and the other from Tennessee, owe their election to Negro votes; a Mississippi...
...planned, the Southern Courier which will be based in Atlanta, will print three editions a week, one for each of the three states--Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi--in which it will be distributed...