TENNESSEE: Wrongs Beyond Rights

Rolling over 700 square miles in southwestern Tennessee, Fayette County is a Black-belt area where cotton is king, the white man is prince, and Negro sharecroppers for years have easy credit and good will—so long as they keep out of trouble. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1957, Fayette County Negroes began to line up in increasing numbers to register as voters. The whites cared less about the law than the fact that in Fayette County, Negroes outnumber whites 14,000 to 10,000.

On primary day a year ago, the white poll...