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The African-American Community Forum

The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution were passed at the end of slavery along with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. All these amendments and laws were intended and seen as necessary to guarantee African-Americans full citizenship and the right to full participation in the political process along with full access to all public accommodations.

Neither the constitutional amendments nor the Civil Rights laws of 1866 and 1875 were ever implemented and enforced. How could that be in a democracy? A nation where “We the people of the United States, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” applies to all citizens. This column is about the practice of American democracy and the democratic ideas of “majority rule” and “minority rights” as used and misused to control and subordinate African-Americans in Wilkes County during the Jim Crow era between 1877 and 1954.

The key to American democracy is the right to be heard through the vote. A central idea is the idea of “majority rule with protection of minority rights.” The majority in this context is a numerical figure. The group with the most numerical support constitutes the majority voice to be heard. That basic principle of democracy was not applied in Wilkes County or elsewhere in the south, before the Voting Rights Movement of the 1960s when African-Americans throughout the South began to challenge prevailing practices.

Although African-Americans in Wilkes County constituted a numerical majority of the county’s population between 1865 and 1920, and even through the 1960s, it was a population without a political voice. The laws and constitutional amendments that Congress had passed to protect African-American rights were not enforced. Instead, these laws were supplanted by Jim Crow laws aimed at restricting and controlling African-Americans and ensuring their continued subordination and inferiority status.

Political power, along with economic power, remained firmly in the hands of whites in Wilkes County and throughout the State of Georgia and the South. The Jim Crow statutes, rules and regulations that existed in Georgia were strictly enforced in Wilkes County until the late 1960s (and not actually removed from the state’s legal codes until April 29, 2005, by Governor Sonny Perdue.)

In Wilkes County, as was true throughout the south, the AfricanAmerican majority population was transformed by Jim Crow laws into a socially and economically controlled lower class minority group. By contrast, the minority white population was elevated by Jim Crow laws into the power elite and political ruling class. According to the 1870 Census, the population of Wilkes County was 11,796 of which African-American citizens were 7,827 or 66.4 percent while white citizens were 3,969 or 33.6 percent. It was also in 1870 that the 15th Amendment was adopted to ensure the extension of the right to vote to African-American males. Let us be reminded that women, including African-American women, could not vote until the 19th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1920.

The 1890 Census reported the population of Wilkes County to be 18,081; African-Americans, 12,465 or 68.9 percent and white, 5,616, or 31.0 percent. For the first time after 1870, the actual breakdown of Wilkes County’s population by sex was given, therefore, making it possible to ascertain eligible male voters in Wilkes County in 1890. Franchised white eligible voting males were 1,704 and disenfranchised AfricanAmerican ineligible voting males, 3,307, a disenfranchised ratio of 1.94 votes to one franchised white vote.

Had the 15th Amendment been fully implemented by Congress and enforced locally, African-American males would have been the “majority rule” group beginning in 1870.

Let’s fast forward to 1920 when female citizens were allowed to vote under the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

The 1920 Census report showed the population of Wilkes County to be 24,210, the highest ever in the history of the county. Male and female African-Americans totaled 16,093, or 66.5 percent, and male and female whites, 8,117, or 33.5 percent. Franchised white eligible voting age citizens were 4,217 and disenfranchised African-American ineligible voting age citizens were 8,370 or a disenfranchised ratio of 1.98 votes to one franchised white vote.

Now let’s fast forward to the close of the 20th century and examine the 2000 U.S. Census report.

The second half of the 20th century brought some significant changes. The United States Congress and the Supreme Court Justices revisited the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution and decided that those amendments did in fact apply to all citizens of America and should be enforced.

In 1954, the Supreme Court declared the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case that had legalized Jim Crow inequality as “separate but equal,” unconstitutional and reversed that decision in the case of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 were revalidated or incorporated in the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1968, and the Voting Right Act of 1982, Civil Rights Act of 1991. Those various Civil Rights laws of the late 20th century were simply conferring what had been conferred but not enforced in the 19th century.

Those 20th century laws, passed in response to the African-American protest movement, and the Supreme Court decision did in fact change the social, political, and educational status of African-Americans from disenfranchised to franchised American citizens. Let’s examine the impact as reflected in the 2000 census data for Wilkes County.

The 2000 U.S. Census report showed the population of Wilkes County to be 10,687. There were 4,606 African-Americans or 43.1 percent; and 6,081 whites or 56.9 percent. Since 1970 the African-American population has continued to decline relative to the white population. Thus the formerly numerical minority white citizens that maintained political and economic power and control in Wilkes County since the 1870s by disenfranchising the African American majority population is now able to maintain the true majority political, socials, economic power based on the population count and the one man, one vote concept. Perhaps that is one of the ironies of white supremacy in the history of Wilkes County.

In 2004, the City of Washington and two of the six County Commissioner Districts contain a majority African-American population and majority rule potential. It is unfortunate that potential is not fully exercised at the voting booth by the majority African-American population. The Voters Registration Office of Wilkes County reported as of August 2004 showed the registered voters of the City of Washington and the county districts.

Registered African-American voters in the City were 1,303 or 55.3 percent, whites, 1,050, or 44.5 percent, and Asian/Hispanic four or 0.2 percent. By contrast, the AfricanAmerican population, as reported in the 2003 updated census population count, was African-Americans, 2,607, or 60.7 percent; white population was 1,623, or 38 percent; and the Asian/Hispanic, 56, or 1.3 percent.

In 2004, there were 5,180 registered voters in Wilkes County. A total of 3,127 or 60.4 percent of these were white and 2,036 or 39.3 percent were African-Americans and 17 or 0.3 percent were Asian/Hispanic. These county figures include those persons who also live within the city limits of Washington. County commissioners, school board members and statewide Representatives are elected at the county level that includes the City of Washington.

Although African-Americans are only 39.3 percent of total registered voters countywide, however, they constitute a numerical majority in two of the six county voting precincts. In precinct 1, they are 58.9 percent majority of the registered voters. In precinct 3A, they are 68.8 percent majority of the registered voters. Thus, in those two precincts, the African-American vote can determine the outcome of any election where there is unity among the voters. For example, with the election of county commissioners and school board members, the African-Americans have the political power to have equal representation. Perhaps this majority rule power has not yet been fully recognized by those AfricanAmericans living within precinct 1 and 3A. Could it be apathetic or unlearned social behavior?

At the city level, citizens elect the mayor and city council members. African-Americans constitute 60.7 percent of the city’s population and 55.3 percent of the registered voters. Similarly, whites are 38 percent of the total population of the city and 44.5 percent of the registered voters. Therefore, the majority rule power and recognized minority rights can rest by choice in the political control power of African-Americans in the City of Washington. However, City Council District 1 is on record as a divided ideologue that dilutes its ability to influence major issues affecting the welfare of District 1 citizens and the city-at-large.

Let’s compare the 1920 U.S. Census data with the 2000 Census. In 1920, Wilkes County’s population was 24,210, the highest ever in the history of the county; African-Americans, 16,093 or 66.5 percent, and white, 8,117, or 33.5 percent. Franchised whites eligible voting age citizens were 4,217 and disenfranchised African-American ineligible voting age citizens were 8,370. The disenfranchised ratio of 1.98 votes to 1 franchised white vote as compared to August 2004 registered voters in Wilkes County, the ratio of AfricanAmericans registered voters to white is .64 to 1, therefore, the majority ownership of capital assets, wealth, education, social, economic and political power remained unchanged between 1865 and 2005, under the control doctrine of white supremacy in Wilkes County.

I wish to thank my readers for their support and kind responses to all previous articles. Also, I wish you all a merry Christmas: Christ is the reason for the season.

The opinions expressed by this columnist do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of this newspaper.