Mississippi: Pledges of Love and Unity

Fayette, Miss., a racially mixed community of 1,700, pays its mayor $75 a month and had allowed one white man to enjoy the sweets of office for 18 years. R. J. Allen, 74, might have remained in power until nature took its inevitable course. Like blacks elsewhere in the state, however, Fayette's Negro majority yearned to translate their votes into political power. Last week, in a Democratic primary contest that was tantamount to election, they made Civil Rights Leader Charles Evers the first black mayor of a Mississippi town since Reconstruction.

Evers, who took over his brother Medgar's job after the N.A.A.C.P. field director was assassinated in 1963, attracted help from all over. Paul O'Dwyer, a losing liberal Democratic candidate from New York for the U.S. Senate in 1968, and Earl Graves, once an administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy, came down to campaign. Ethel Kennedy pledged support. Telegrams came from Senator Edward Kennedy and Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Tom Bradley. There were also slogans minted by a Manhattan advertising agency and mimeographed press releases that smacked of big-city flackery. A platoon of student volunteers did electoral leg work. The result: a count of 386 votes for Evers, 255 for Allen.

Hellacious Connections. The example of the Evers mayoral candidacy helped stimulate Negro election efforts elsewhere in Mississippi. About 185 Negro candidates were running for mayor, alderman and Democratic executive committeemen in 45 other Mississippi communities. In primaries, Negroes won outright a total of 17 aldermanic races, forced runoff elections in ten more and garnered 15 Democratic committee seats. Evers, who raised more than $10,000 for black aspirants across the state, was the showpiece success. His coattails were sturdy enough to sweep his entire Fayette slate of five black aldermen and six committeemen into power. That accounted for just about all the politics in Fayette, the sway-backed seat of poverty-ridden Jefferson County. Evers promised during the campaign to provide paved streets, sewers and running water in Fayette's black shantytown and, above all, industrial activity to alleviate the destitution that keeps 65% of his black constituents dependent on small welfare checks. Half a century ago, the county supported 25,000 souls; today, it has a population of fewer than 10,000. "Some folks been saying 'the niggers'll ruin the town,' " an aging white merchant confided. "Hell, the town's been ruined already."

Nonetheless, the election results did not sit well with Fayette's outnumbered whites. To Farmer John Barry, Evers seems to be only "just another nigger trying to get along." Barry did not, however, expect many white families to pack up and go. After witnessing Evers' out-of-state support, he conceded that the incoming administration enjoyed "hellacious connections" that could just turn out to be the town's salvation. Nor was there the overt intimidation of blacks that had marked past elections. "We took the whole town away from white people," Evers marveled, "and not a single Negro was beaten up. A few years ago, we'd have all been killed. Maybe that ain't much progress, but it's something."