Court Voids Extended Terms for County Commissioners

    10 Columbus Circle 

New York, N.Y. 10019 

JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Lega? Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Tuesday, April 26, 1966 

COURT VOIDS EXTENDED TERMS 
FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 

Fund Wins Victory in Bullock County, Alabama 

MONTGOMERY -- A three-judce federal court last week struck down a 

provision of an Alabama law that would have postponed elections of 

Bullock County Commissioners for two years. The commissioners are 

the county's principal governing body. 

The court, acting on a suit brought by the NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund, was divided 2-1 in its opinion. 

District Suds 4 Frank M. Johnson, Jr., who concurred in the 

decision, said the hitory of voting discrimination in Bullock 

County and the states Alabama "has been systematic, intentional, 

invidious and in clear violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. 

The terms of two of the four county commissioners expire 

next January. The law, enacted two weeks after passage of the 

federal Voting Rights Act, would have extended their terms two. 

years, thus postponing elections for those posts until 1968. 

The court ordered a primary election to be held May 31, 

with a general election in November. 

The other two commissioners, whose terms expire in 

January, 1969, would also have had their terms extended two years. 

Elections for those posts would have been changed from 1968 to 1970. 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys contended that the purpose 

of the law was to prevent newly registered Negroes from voting or 

running for county commissioner. 

Although the law was passed nearly a year age. its pro- 

visions did not become generally known until last February when 

Ben McGhee, one of seven Negro plaintiffs in the suit, “attempted 

to file as a candidate for county commissioner. Hegwas told 

there would be no election this year. 

(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Publie Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 



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Court Voids Extended Terms 
For County Commissioners 

The county has nearly twice as many voting age Negroes 

as white, but only since passage of the Voting Rights Act have 

Negro registered voters outnumbered whites. 

Circuit Judge Richard T. Rives wrote the court's opinion. 

He held that extension of the terms of incumbenetor fici als violated 

a provision of the Voting Rights Law that forbids changes in the 

voting qualifications and procedures that were in effect November 

1, 1964. 4 

Judge Johnson disagreed with Judge Rives that there was 

no racial discrimination involved in the extension of the com- 

missioners] terms. The history of discrimination against Negro 

voters led him to "the firm conclusion" that the extension of 

terms "was racially motivated," Judge Johnson said. 

District Judge H. Hobart Grooms dissented. 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys involved in the case were 

Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, Fred Wallace and Michael J. 

Henry of New York and Fred Gray of Montgomery. 

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