SCLC #597 — Ballot was not automatic desegregation

Printed pp.192–193 / PDF leaf 105 (“The vote and its effect”). In four of 21 selected counties Black residents registered and voted in significant numbers. Clearest contrast = political inclusion: in three of four, white candidates sought Black votes and Black residents had political organizations; in two, Black residents ran for office; in one they sometimes won. Most lower-voting counties nearly excluded Black residents from the political process (Hertford NC explicit exception: one Black candidate who lost).

Yet segregation remained fact of life in both groups: schools in all 21 separate and generally unequal; no desegregation suit filed against any of them at study time; segregated libraries, transport, public accommodations. Public employment in the four voting counties as restricted as in the 17. Narrower educational gaps and less restrictive justice environment noted — not equality. Conclusion: correlation between voting and other rights “limited and uncertain”; study could not establish necessarily quick tangible gains or that voting directly caused all observed differences. Political participation still called indispensable to full citizenship.

Craft: do not read as “voting solved segregation” or “voting did nothing.” PDF places pp.192–193 image before pp.190–191 — do not infer folio from PDF order. Source: 1961-black-belt-voting-political-inclusion-not-automatic-desegregation.