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FREEDOMWAYS
THIRD QUARTER 1966

now turned our attention to activities within the state. While the state has not retreated from its general policies toward Negroes, it has seen the need to project an image reflecting apparent reform. Mississippi has heard the warnings given by the national Democratic party and by the Congress about future exclusion of the Negro population. Frantic efforts on the part of the state leadership to project the new facade of moderation, however, are constantly offset by actions which indicate the shallowness of this image. 

In spite of an admitted need to present an apparently integrated delegation at the next national convention of the Democratic party, thereby avoiding another challenge, Governor Johnson was recently quoted in the Jackson [[italics]] Clarion Ledger,[[italics]] declaring fervently that "no Negroes were, nor were likely in the foreseeable future, to occupy any position of influence in the state Democratic party structure." The new moderation also reflects itself in defiance of the Voting Rights law. State Attorney General Patterson instructed all county clerks that [[italics]]federally registered[[italics]] persons are not to be added tot he voting lists unless they meet "Mississippi's standards for voting." We know what those are. The new moderation is reflected in a redistricting scheme which was pushed by Gov. Johnson and has now been enacted, the purpose of which is to eliminate the Negro majority in the 2nd Congressional district by gerrymandering. This is being contested in a suit filed on behalf of the MFDP. We have already seen another expression of this new moderation, also aimed at the Negro majority in the Delta, in the wave of evictions now in progress. 

As Mississippi managed in the past to exclude Negroes totally from political representation and activity, it now conspires to deny us representation and power in proportion to our numbers. The first and most obvious way is to reduce these numbers as the present economic upheavals in the Delta are doing.

How often have we seen situations where Negro communities after great struggle and sacrifice have won the right to vote, only to find that the true potential of their voting strength is never reflected in real political change because the [[italics]]ancient regime[[italics]] has speedily redistricted predominantly Negro subdivisions so as to lessen the effects of the franchise?

[[bold italics]] white power structure tries tokenism [[bold italics]]

Just as often the effective political organization of the Negro community has been aborted by tokenism-the time honored practice of 

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