Voting rights of whites violated in Mississippi county, judge says

By Jack Elliott Jr.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 1, 2007 Union Tribube

JACKSON, Miss. – A federal judge has ruled that a majority black county in eastern Mississippi violated whites' voting rights in what prosecutors said was the first lawsuit to use the Voting Rights Act on behalf of whites.

U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee ruled late Friday that Noxubee County Democratic Party leader Ike Brown and the county Democratic Executive Committee “manipulated the political process in ways intended and designed to impair and impede participation of white voters and to dilute their votes.”

The Justice Department accused Brown of trying to limit whites' participation in local elections in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, written to protect racial minorities when Southern states strictly enforced segregation.

“Every American has the right to vote free from racial discrimination,” said Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

Noxubee County is a rural area along the Alabama line with a population of about 12,500, 70 percent of whom are black.

Brown didn't return calls yesterday seeking comment.

The Justice Department alleged in the 2006 lawsuit that Noxubee County blacks tried to shut whites out of the voting process.

Brown had claimed the Justice Department was misconstruing as racial intimidation his attempts to keep Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries.

Lee, who presided over the case without a jury, gave attorneys on both sides until July 29 to file briefs suggesting how to end the discrimination.

The case was a civil matter carrying no criminal penalties, but defendants who violate Lee's final order could face contempt charges and fines, prosecutors said.

Ricky Walker, who is white and the county's prosecuting attorney, believes Brown recruited an opponent to run against Walker in 2003 because of Walker's race.

“We're glad to be getting it over with so we move on and get to the point where maybe we can just have fair, honest, impartial elections here . . . and not have to go through all this circus to get an election done,” said Walker, who was a Justice Department witness during the trial in January.

Walker, who is running unopposed this year, said the lawsuit created some unrest in the county “that we were getting past . . . blacks and whites starting to support people on their ability to fulfill the job rather than just strictly a political or racial basis.”