New Tactic

Mississippi tried a new racial tactic. In last week's Democratic primaries, prospective voters could be required, under a state law passed last March, to swear their faith in "party principles." In Mississippi, Democratic party principles not only mean white supremacy, but include opposition to federal antilynching, anti-poll-tax and fair employment practices laws. The new law was frankly designed to keep Negroes from voting.

It did, more or less. Besides, the day was sizzling hot, with temperatures up to 106DEG. But the few Negroes who showed up at the polls were mostly permitted to vote without challenge. Thus, the constitutional issue raised by the new law was not sharply joined. There was only one instance of violence. In the tiny town of Moselle, four white men got into a shooting-scrape over letting Negroes vote; one was killed.

Chief winner in the election: Governor Fielding L. Wright, a middle-of-the-road politician, who was easily nominated for his first full term.

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In Virginia's Democratic primaries, a Negro came within an ace of being nominated to the state legislature. Lawyer Oliver W. Hill, one of 18 candidates for Richmond's seven lower-house seats, finished eighth with 6,310 votes, just 190 short of nomination. Said the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "We may as well accustom ourselves to the thought that the Negro citizens of the Old Dominion may send one of their number to the General Assembly before many years are past."

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