Georgia: Legislative Change

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Less than four years ago, Georgia House Speaker George L. Smith looked up to the balcony and didn't like what he saw. "Mr. Doorkeeper," yelled Smith, "get those niggers out of the white section of the gallery!" Eight Negroes were ejected.

Last week, in a special election held as a result of court-induced legislative reapportionment, two of those same Negroes were back—this time as duly elected state representatives. And they brought with them six others. These, along with two Negroes already serving in the senate, gave Georgia more Negroes in its legislature than any other state in the Union save Pennsylvania, also with ten, and Michigan, with eleven.

This represented quite a change—as did the fact that Republicans, who for decades rated only slightly higher than Negroes in Georgia politics, more than tripled their number in the 205-member house, from seven to 22.