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Blacks celebrate numerous victories in primary election results.
1974 (May 7 - 14)
In primary elections held in the spring, southern Blacks continued to increase their numbers in major posts in state governments and Blacks continued to hold the mayor's office in major American cities. Fourteen Blacks were assured election to the Alabama House of Representatives in the May 7 primary. Two Blacks were assured election to the Alabama State Senate, with the possibility of one other also being selected. In North Carolina, three Blacks won state house seats and one a post in the state senate in the May 7 primary. A Black was elected to a municipal judgeship in Nashville, Tennessee. Another was elected a constable in Cleveland, and still another won an alderman's seat in Ripley, Tennessee. Three Blacks led in contests for seats in the Texas legislature. Kenneth A. Gibson won an easy victory in his second bid for mayor of Newark, New Jersey, on May 24. Gibson, the first Black mayor of a major northeastern city, claimed that his victory showed that “Newark had come up from its past.” He noted that the racial issue which divided the city during the 1970 mayoral election was not a major factor in the current campaign. Gibson won the support of about 65 percent of the 118,000 registered voters in defeating State Senator Anthony Imperiale. Also, in the May 7 Alabama primary, Alabama Governor George Wallace made a direct appeal for Black votes for the first time. Estimates of the number he actually received ranged from about 10 percent to as much as 30 percent. Wallace won important backing from several Black Alabama politicians, including Mayor Johnny Ford of Tuskegee. Despite criticism from fellow Blacks throughout the nation, Ford stood by his support for Governor Wallace. The young mayor justified his actions on the fact that Wallace had been responsive to the economic problems of Tuskegee and had aided the city in receiving state and federal grants. In connection with the spring elections, a joint report issued by the Voter Education Project in Atlanta, the Joint Center for Political Studies, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, showed that implementation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act led to a 169 percent increase in the number of Black elected officials in the South between 1969 and 1974 alone. According to the report, there were 299 Black elected officials in the six southern states covered by the act-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia—in 1969. By 1974, the number had risen to 815, a 169 percent increase.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.