The Rise of Negro Voting in Texas1

Since Negro voting, or the fear of it, is the central issue around which so many other aspects of Southern politics are oriented, it is highly relevant to examine the emergence of Negro voting wherever it occurs in a Southern state. In Texas, the federal Supreme Court's “white primary” decision of April, 1944 (Smith v. Allwright), removed the most formidable barrier to Negro participation in politics and resulted in the entry of a significant number of Negroes into the electorate in 1946. Although Texas, with its relatively small Negro population (14 per cent) may not be an exact barometer to guide us in foreseeing the emergence of Negro voting elsewhere in the South, no one interested in predicting the future of this ticklish question can afford to ignore the Texas experience.The exclusion of the Negro from Texas political life has never been complete. Texas has made use of neither the literacy or “understanding” test nor the involved registration procedures so effectively employed to limit Negro participation elsewhere in the South. In Texas, the white primary, the poll tax, and such extra-legal factors as an environment hostile to Negro assertiveness have been the only means used. The Negro has been categorically excluded only from the Democratic primary, the election that really counts. Thus, poll-tax paying Negroes have been legally eligible to vote in general elections, municipal elections, school board elections, special elections, and proposition elections concerning some special issue such as local option on liquor. Even the state-wide white primary is of fairly recent origin; it was only in 1923 that the Texas legislature passed a law barring Negroes from the Democratic primary, thus inaugurating the legal battle that produced the four Supreme Court cases on this issue.