United States v. Atkins

• Decision Date: 15 November 1962
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 2584.
• Citation: 210 F. Supp. 441
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Victor B. ATKINS, Aubrey C. Allen, and Joseph Bibb, Registrars of Voters of Dallas County, Alabama; and State of Alabama, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

210 F. Supp. 441

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Victor B. ATKINS, Aubrey C. Allen, and Joseph Bibb, Registrars of Voters of Dallas County, Alabama; and State of Alabama, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 2584.

United States District Court S. D. Alabama, N. D.

November 15, 1962.

John Doar, Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., Vernol R. Jansen, Jr., U. S. Atty., Mobile, Ala., for plaintiff.

Leslie Hall, Asst. Atty. Gen., Gordon Madison, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., Blanchard McLeod, State Solicitor, Camden, Ala., McLean Pitts, Selma, Ala., for defendants.

DANIEL HOLCOMBE THOMAS, District Judge.

This suit was filed in March 1961 under the Civil Rights Act of 1957 as amended (42 U.S.C. § 1971). The complaint seeking injunctive relief charged the State of Alabama and the Board of Registrars of Dallas County, Alabama, with having engaged in racially discriminatory acts and practices in the registration of voters. At the time the suit was filed, J. P. Majors was the only member of the Board of Registrars of Dallas County.

In May 1961 — about two months after the suit was filed — Mr. Majors resigned, and a new Board of Registrars was appointed. The three new members of the Board were subsequently substituted as defendants in this case by order of the court. These defendants are Victor B. Atkins, Sr., Col. Joseph Bibb, and Aubrey C. Allen. They reside in Dallas County, Alabama. As members of the Board of Registrars of Dallas County they are agents of the defendant State of Alabama.

Dallas County, Alabama, has a votingage population of 29,515 of which 14,400 are white persons and 15,115 are Negroes. As of the date of the trial of this case, May 2, 1962, 8,597 white persons and 242 Negroes were qualified voters in Dallas County.

Between January 1952 and December 1960, ten different individuals served as members of the Board of Registrars of Dallas County. During this period the registrars registered approximately 4,500 white persons and only 88 Negroes. Only 14 Negroes were registered by the Board between June 1954 and December 1960.

Between January 1, 1952, and December 1960, the defendant State of Alabama and its agents, the registrars of voters of Dallas County, refused to register many qualified Negroes, and registered many white applicants who were not qualified.

From June 1961 up to the time of trial (May 2, 1962), the present Board has fulfilled its duties in a manner which could well be emulated by all other Boards in the United States. It is true that the present Board has had 480 white applicants, of whom 443 were registered and 37 rejected; and 114 Negro applicants, of whom 71 were registered and 43 rejected. Viewed from purely a statistical angle, the Department of Justice finds encouragement. In addition to this emphasis on statistics, the government has attacked separately and severally each application as to which it chooses not to agree with the manner in which the application was handled by the Board. The government has submitted a very exhaustive brief based on many charts attempting to prove statistically alleged discrimination and inequities on the part of the present Board. It finds fault with the Board's decision as to many applications. Well there may be differences of opinion on many of these applications. There is the human element involved in the grading of any examination paper. One person has his or her own ideas as to how a paper should be graded. Another person equally as intelligent and equally as honest may well have other ideas, and the same paper would not receive the same mark from both. The real issue is not what is shown by statistics, not whether the grading is too strict or too lax, but rather is the grading done impartially and without discrimination.

After listening to the testimony, after examining the exhibits offered in evidence, and after consideration of the briefs filed on behalf of the parties, this court is of the opinion and finds as a matter of fact that the current defendant Board against whom the injunction is sought, has not engaged in racially discriminatory acts and practices; has not applied different and more stringent standards to Negro applicants than to white applicants in determining whether such applicants are qualified to register and vote; has not unreasonably delayed the registration of Negroes; has not rejected or taken no action on the applications of qualified Negroes; has not failed to notify Negro applicants of the action or decisions taken by the Board with respect to the applications of Negro applicants; has not failed to provide a full-time Board of Registrars; has not pursued a pattern and practice of such deprivations and discriminations.

There is, however, one practice of the present Board which in the opinion of the court must be changed. This is the practice of not allowing rejected applicants, either white or Negro, to ever apply again for registration. The court does not think that a rejected applicant should be permitted to re-apply the same day. There should be some waiting period, and a sixty-day waiting period seems to the court to be fair.

The Department of Justice should recognize the work of the present Board and not insist on litigating over past inequities. To hold that inequities once committed cannot later be legally corrected is not sound. With more than six hundred applications handled by the present Board, the Department of Justice, with...