United States v. McElveen
| Citation | 180 F. Supp. 10 |
| Decision Date | 11 January 1960 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 9146. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Diaz D. McELVEEN, E. Ray McElveen, Saxon Farmer and Eugene Farmer, Individually and as members of the Citizens Council of Washington Parish, Louisiana, Curtis M. Thomas, Registrar of Voters of Washington Parish, Louisiana, and the Citizens Council of Washington Parish, Louisiana, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Joseph M. F. Ryan, Jr., Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., M. Hepburn Many, U. S. Atty., New Orleans, La., for plaintiff.
Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen. of Louisiana, M. E. Culligan, John E. Jackson, Weldon A. Cousins, Wm. P. Schuler, Henry J. Roberts, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen. of Louisiana, for defendant.
France Watts, Jr., Franklinton, La., for Curtis M. Thomas.
Benjamin C. Toledano, New Orleans, La., Meadors, Shaw & Meadors, Homer, La., for Citizens Council of Washington Parish, La.
In the spring of 1959 the Citizens Council, professing a purpose to purge the registration rolls of Washington Parish, Louisiana, of all persons illegally registered, succeeded in disenfranchising 85% of the Negro voters of the Parish and 0.07% of the white. The United States in this action charges that this profession of high purpose was a fraud designed to deny Negro citizens the right to vote. Made defendants and charged with conspiring with the Citizens' Council are several members of the Council and the Registrar of Voters for Washington Parish.
In a prior action this court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss. United States v. McElveen, D.C., 177 F.Supp. 355. Here the United States has moved for a temporary injunction. Based on the evidence offered by all parties in connection with this motion, this Court now makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.
and Eugene Farmer are, and at all times material hereto were, registered voters of Washington Parish, Louisiana, and during the period from November 1, 1958 through July 1, 1959 were members of the defendant Citizens Council.
3. Defendant Citizens Council of Washington Parish, Louisiana, is and at all times material hereto was, a nonprofit corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Louisiana and domiciled in Washington Parish Louisiana. One of its purposes is to maintain racial segregation in said parish.
4. Registration is a prerequisite under state law to voting in any election in the State of Louisiana, and may be either permanent or periodic. Washington Parish, Louisiana became a permanent registration parish in May of 1958 and a registered voter of this parish is not required to re-register unless his name is cancelled from the registration rolls in accordance with law.
5. The defendant Registrar in his official capacity as Registrar of Washington Parish was and is responsible, among other things, for registering of qualified applicants for registration, for keeping and preserving of registration records, and for cancelling from the registration rolls the names of all voters who lose their right to remain on the rolls.
6. Each registered voter of Washington Parish has a registration card, Form of Application for Registration, which, except in the cases of illiterates and the physically disabled, is entirely filled out by the registrant and sworn to before the defendant Registrar. The registration cards of current registrants are maintained in the office of the Registrar of Voters, and are filed in alphabetical order by precincts within the nine wards that comprise Washington Parish.
7. Acting under the authority of the laws of Louisiana, and more particularly Section 245, Title 18 LSA-Revised Statutes of 1950, the Individual Defendants, commencing in February 1959 and ending in June 1959, filed in the office of the defendant Registrar affidavits challenging the right of approximately 1,377 Negroes and approximately 10 white persons to remain on the registration rolls as qualified voters.
8. In filing the aforesaid challenges the individual defendants used the facilities of the office of the defendant Registrar, the official records kept therein, and the Forms of Affidavit of Challenge provided for by the laws of Louisiana.
9. The defendant Registrar, acting under the authority of Title 18 Section 245 of the LSA-Revised Statutes of 1950, issued and caused to be issued to the persons challenged, Citations of Notice to Erase requiring them to appear at the office of the defendant Registrar and prove by written affidavit of three bona fide registered voters their right to remain on the registration rolls.
10. Following and as a result of the challenges made by the individual defendants, the names of the persons challenged were removed from the registration rolls of Washington Parish. The number so removed was approximately 98% of the total that was removed from the rolls of Washington Parish during the period November 1, 1958 through July 1, 1959.
11. On November 30, 1958 there were 11,444 white persons and 1,517 Negroes registered to vote in Washington Parish, Louisiana. On June 30, 1959 there were 12,228 white persons and 236 Negroes registered to vote there. The decline in the number of registered Negro voters in Washington Parish between the dates November 4, 1958 and June 16, 1959 was a direct result of the filing in the office of the Registrar of Affidavits of Challenge by the individual defendants.
12. The Affidavits of Challenge filed by the individual defendants purported to be based on defects or deficiencies in the registration cards such as misspellings, deviations from printed instructions, failure to compute age with exact precision, and illegible handwriting.
13. The same defects and deficiencies are to be found in at least half of the registration cards of the white citizens of Washington Parish currently on the registration rolls. Analysis of a random sampling of 200 cards, 198 of which were of white persons, revealed that over 60% had such defects and inconsistencies, and the defendant Registrar, who has worked with all registration cards since 1949, testified that at least 50% had such errors and omissions.
14. In examining the Washington Parish registration records for the purpose of filing the said Affidavits of Challenge, the individual defendants limited their examination almost exclusively to the registration records of Negro voters while making only a token examination of the registration records of white voters. The individual defendants made no examination of the registration records pertaining to those wards in which no Negroes were registered and they challenged no voters in those wards.
15. The acts and practices of the individual defendants, as described, were committed and engaged in for the purpose and with the effect of depriving Negroes, solely because of their race or color, of the right to register and vote.
16. Based upon his knowledge that (a) the individual defendants virtually confined their examination of the registration records to those of Negro voters, (b) the challenges were directed almost entirely to Negroes and not white persons, and (c) the individual defendants filed Affidavits of Challenge involving defects and deficiencies which he knew also appeared in the records of white persons, against whom Affidavits of Challenge were not filed, the defendant Registrar was well aware of the racially discriminatory character of the challenges of the individual defendants.
17. Defendant Citizens Council at all times pertinent to this action approved and endorsed the aforesaid acts and practices of the individual defendants, all of whom were members of the defendant Citizens Council.
18. But for the acts and practices of the individual defendants in filing the...
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