The South: Fact of Life

In many Deep South strongholds of segregation, local registrars last week were still using the old, familiar tactics of skulduggery and intimidation. Nonetheless, three weeks after the Voting Rights Act took effect, many thousands of Negroes had qualified as voters for the first time. "Almost everybody is getting registered who applies," said John Doar, chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Federal registrars, sent into 14 counties of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana that have long records of systematic discrimination against Negro voters, have enfranchised more than 34,000 Negroes. The extent of Southern compliance was indicated by the fact...