ALLOW THE ACT TO DIE, BLACKS AND OTHER RACIAL MINORITIES WILL HAVE THE DOORS TO LEGISLATIVE PROCESSES SLAMMED IN THEIR FACES, AND THE TREMENDOUS CONTRIBUTION MINORITIES HAVE JUST BEGUN TO MAKE IN GOVERNMENT, SO ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN THE CITIES AND COUNTIES OF OUR NATION, WILL BE LOST. THE HISTORY OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION HAS TAUGHT ME THAT WE CAN GO BACKWARDS ON RACE RELATIONS AND VOTING RIGHTS. THERE CAN ONCE AGAIN BE NO BLACKS ON THE CITY COUNCILS, IN THE COUNTY COURTHOUSES, IN THE SHERIFF'S OFFICES. AND ECONOMIC GAINS CAN SOON EVAPORATE. COUNTLESS SOCIAL, POLITICAL, IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THIS CONGRESS TO SEE THAT THOSE GAINS ARE THE STRENGTH OF FUTURE PROGRESS AND THAT SELMA, 1965, NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. FOOTNOTES NEGRO-W 2CALCULATION BASED ON CURRENT POPULATION REPORTS, MARCH 1980, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, AND VOTER EDUCATION PROJECT SURVEY, 1980. 3NATIONAL ROSTER OF BLACK ELECTED OFFICIALS, 1980, PUBLISHED BY THE JOINT CENTER FOR POLITICAL STUDIES, WASHINGTON, D.C. 4U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 1965-1980, AS CITED IN CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY, APRIL 11, 1981, p. 636. 5VOTING RIGHTS ACT-ENFORCEMENT NEEDS STRENGTHENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1978, A REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. ALABAMA LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION SURVEY, 1981. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you very much, Representative Buskey. The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Hyde. Mr. HYDE. Well, I have no specific questions other than to extend my appreciation for the three of your statements, and all the statements we have heard today. I know there is another panel which I cannot remain for. It is very illuminating, and I appreciate it. I just want to comment parenthetically that what may be good in one section of the country may be abused in another. Assistance voting, for example, which you have stated is desirable where you are, is one of the most abused things up in my jurisdiction where the precinct captain goes in and sees how you vote and makes sure you vote right and maybe votes for you. That happens under the guise of assisting people from other countries who do not speak the language. It may be a good thing as I say in some jurisdictions, and it can be abused in others. But what you have told us has been very important, and I thank you. Mr. EDWARDS. I certainly say amen to what my colleague from Illinois says. The testimony today has been very impressive and you three gentleman have added to the impact of it. We face a very serious situation, not only in the South, but the signal that would go out to the country and to the world at large if this bill is not extended would be catastrophic. Absolutely catastrophic. That is the message that I think you are carrying here to Washington, and that is the message that is going to have to go out throughout the United States, because an awful lot of people think that everything is just fine. Your testimony and the other witnesses indicate that things are not just fine, and that we have got a long, long way to go. Is complying with section 5 expensive and time consuming to these local officials? Mr. BUSKEY. Mr. Chairman, the only thing the officials will have to do once they pass the bill that would either rearrange some borderlines or reidentification, or whatever impact it would have, the only thing they would have to do is submit it to the Justice Department. That takes, what, an 18-cent stamp now. The Justice Department will take the length of time under the law, 60 days with the extension, perhaps 90, and evidence whether or not it is going to object to it. I wanted to make just one point. No, it is not time consuming for the officials or the person who passes the measure, particularly as it relates to Alabama, because the Secretary of State has the responsibility to forward it to the Justice Department. It does not take that much time. But what is happening is that we are getting ready for an election in Alabama, a legislative election next year. You come up with the reidentification bill. Unless the Justice Department acts very quickly on it, then the provisions of the bill are carried out, which means that the rolls would be purged, if we are talking about reidentification, before the Justice Department has brought the pressure of its office to bear. But in specific answer to your question, no, sir, just an 18-cent stamp from the secretary of state to Washington. Mr. GRAY. Mr. Chairman, looking at it from another point of view, in Macon County, of which Tuskegee is the county seat, I represent the county as county attorney. We have had occasion to have to move voting places. All it has taken is simply what our office usually does is write a letter to the Justice Department, set out exactly what needs to take place, what we are trying to do, and usually we will get a phone call or so back that they need additional information. So it is not difficult at all. Mr. EDWARDS. Do these jurisdictions who submit these changes feel that the Justice Department is unfair in approving or disapproving the changes? Mr. GRAY. It is difficult to say what they believe. I would think that if they have a bill, a change that is a legitimate change, and the design, the effect, is to disenfranchise blacks, they do not have any problems. But I think they have problems whether there are other motives other than genuine objective changes. Mr. NETTLES. I agree. I also think though it gives some of them an out because of the mandate of the guideline. It gives them an opportunity in some instances to do what is right and to save face. Mr. EDWARDS. Do you hear them say or do they put in the newspaper a complaint that the decision should not be made by some bureaucrat sitting in Washington? Mr. GRAY. Well, you always have that. Local politicians always look for a whipping boy. Washington is the farthest distance, so they use that. But we do not see that as a genuine concern. It is a political matter. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you. Mr. BUSKEY. Mr. Chairman, as relates to the same question you are addressing, section 5 preclearance has in my judgment a significant deterrent effect. As I look at the members of the legislature and trying to understand them as a body and as individuals, they are often people who served in the legislature, would probably do anything under the Sun and Moon and heaven and Earth in order to protect themselves and their positions. I am fairly sure that they would pass any law that would keep them in the position where they are and have the effect of impacting adversely on blacks who constitute a majority in those areas. Section 5 preclearance section says that the deterrent effect to keep them from passing laws in that district, that in effect will disenfranchise the majority black population there. Mr. EDWARDS. The testimony today has surprised and disappointed me in one way. And that is that the act has been so widely avoided by either not producing and sending to Washington these submissions, or by new devices to get around the thrust of the act. So it is not the strongest bill in the world. It certainly does not reach into every home or office or covered jurisdiction, does it? Mr. BUSKEY. You are right. It is not the best in the world, but it is the best we have at the present time. Mr. NETTLES. Correct, and we could not survive without it. Counsel. Ms. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Attorney Gray, you used some very strong language. You did it both times on the same page, page 5 of your testimony. You indicated, "In the face of the Voting Rights Act, white officials in Greene County, Ala., in 1968 stole the election from black candidates." At the bottom of the page you indicated that, "Our legislators and county officials have begun to conspire to turn back the clock." That is awfully strong language, and I wonder if you could explain in a bit more detail what you mean by those statements. Mr. GRAY. With respect to the election in 1969, I am sorry we do not have some elections here from Greene County, but I understand from the black residents of Greene County that they in fact did win the elections over there. And they were stolen from them. It is somewhat similar to what happened to me when I ran for the legislature the first time in 1966. This happpened in Lowndes County, which is the same place where you have Clio you heard about. It happens the white businessman who told me this was from Clio. He said: Well, Fred, I think if you were elected you could be an effective legislator. But you know we have been stealing the elections down here from each other for years, and you know what will happen if you get elected. True enough, when the votes were in, I had won the election by some 300 votes. We thought they were all in. The next day the absentee ballots came in, and it was some 500 absentee ballots. I ended up losing, and finally won some 4 years later. So you have any number of situations like that and others where elections are in fact stolen. I do not think there is any question but when you consider the testimony you heard earlier, if you just take these so-called reidentification deals, they are red flags, and they are designed, you look at the area where they come from. All predominantly black areas, all where you have no black legislators. They have no objective criteria like they did in the Birmingham bill. See, Birmingham took place some time before. So you could not say they did not have an example that they could have gone by. The purpose there is not to get the persons who were ineligible off the voters' list. But I think the effect of it is, it takes a little more coercion of people and a little more hard work because of a lot of problems to get us to go back and get registered again. So I think that in and of itself points up that there is really a concerted effort as a conservative mood on the part of this country, and I do not need to say that here in Washington, and it is turning back the clock against minorities in as many areas as they can. They do not say it. I will fight now, and I have been in this battle 26 years. It was easy when I got out of law school. Folks will tell you, "I believe in segregation"; we had enforced segregation laws and they were on the books. But now they believe in it. They want to practice it. They will not tell it to you, but they will do it to you the same way, and the results will be the same. So I think it definitely is a concerted effort to turn back the time. Ms. DAVIS. So you stick to your position? Mr. GRAY. I stick to it. Ms. DAVIS. Mr. McDonald from the ACLU this morning indicated he was born and raised in the South. He is white. He is not proud of the fact that in his region of the country there is still a need for the Voting Rights Act. But there certainly are people in the country who want to believe that the race problem has been solved, that there is still a race problem in the South. My question to the panel is whether you agree with that viewpoint. Furthermore are there any white officials in your State who would speak in support of the extension of the act? Mr. NETTLES. I overwhelmingly agree with that viewpoint. I do not know of any white in Alabama who would support that viewpoint. Mr. BUSKEY. Would you repeat the last part of your sentence, I know you said he was not proud Ms. DAVIS. That there was still a race problem in the South. Would you agree with that? Mr. BUSKEY. I most certainly will. We had a little trial down there in Mobile last week, City of Mobile v. Bolden. That is a retrial case returned to the district court from the Supreme Court. In my judgment the plaintiff put on overwhelming evidence that race is a factor in the city and county of Mobile and we believe in the State of Alabama. Mr. McDonald said that race was a problem. He is drinking from the same cup that I am drinking out of. Mr. GRAY. If Alabama and other Southern States were genuinely concerned about helping and protecting the rights of blacks, and I think in each of these State's constitutions they have as much a right to protect blacks' rights as the Federal Constitution. But history has taught us they do not do it, never have, and I do not think they ever will on their own. And until such time as these States do something affirmative to show their good faith and their intentions to do something, we will always need a civil rights bill. One of the things I was trying to do in the legislature, even though they were not enforcing a lot of the rights on the books, I introduced a bill to have them all repealed. They did not get out of the committee. They are still there. They are not enforced, but they are there. We have to continue to keep the pressure on. In my county of Macon and we have about 86 percent black, and I had to, before I could win jury cases in that county, I had to file a suit in order that blacks would serve on the jury in proportion to the population. I came to court one day about 5 or 6 years ago and got a venire, |