4.

In the Perry and Greene Counties prosecutions, the

Department of Justice has failed to gain any convictions after three separate trials. In Perry County, Albert and Evelyn Turner and Spencer Hogue have been acquitted. In Greene County, the trial of James Colvin and subsequent trial of Bobby Nell Simpson both ended in hung juries. Commentators have been uniformly appalled by the weak government cases.

These prosecutions not only reflect a shift away from enforcing the intent and purpose of the Voting Rights Act but, in a broader sense, the prosecutions themselves and the investigations connected with them conducted by the F.B.I. have substantially

...

Black voters, many of them elderly and disabled, were confronted in Perry and Greene Counties soon after the primary election on September 4, 1984, by F.B. I. agents and questioned about their vote; writing samples, photographs, and fingerprints were taken; the secrecy of their ballot was violated; many were subpoenaed long distances to a grand jury; many initially thought they were themselves being criminally charged.

It is not difficult to imagine the effect of these intimidating tactics on Black voters in a region of the country where only recently through very difficult struggles Blacks became able to exercise their right to vote. These witch hunt investigations and subsequent prosecutions have had a substantial and pervasive chilling effect on Black participation in electoral politics as well as on those activists attempting to get out a large Black vote.

5.

It was out of concern for the continuing vitality of the Voting Rights Act, concern about the chilling effect of the Justice Department policies and its apparent disregard for the elderly and disabled Black voter, that the N.A.A.R.P.R. organized a delegation, in which I participated, of political, labor, civil rights, and community leaders, headed by Congressman Fauntroy's office, to meet with Stephen Trott, Chief of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department and Wm. Bradford Reynolds, Chief of the Civil Rights Division. While Mr. Trott and representatives of Mr. Reynolds were unable or unwilling to discuss Justice Department policies regarding Voting Rights Act enforcement, Mr. Trott dia

What is really going on? Why are Black elderly and disabled voters being intimidated by the F.B.I. at the behest of the Department of Justice leadership? Why are Justice Department prosecutions of Black voter rights activists and Black elected officials occurring in Perry and Greene Counties and throughout the South while enforcement of the Voting Rights Act is ignored? We think these investigations and prosecutions and

the intimidating effects they have on Black voters are a direct result of a policy by this Administration against the enfranchisement of Black voters in the South. This policy initially manifested itself in the Administration's opposition to the extension of the Voting Rights Act and, failing this, in its attempts to weaken

6.

the Act. The prioritization of alleged voter fraud cases and the selective prosecution of Black voter rights activists and Black elected officials today is the implementation of this Administration's policy to ignore enforcement and to undermine past positive effects of the Voting Rights Act.

We think that this shameful policy is rooted in efforts by this Administration for a political realignment of the United States to the right and that, in the Administration's view, essential for that realignment to the right is disenfranchisement of Black voters in the South.

We urge Congress to take swift, strong, and certain

designated by Congress as chief enforcer of the Voting Rights Act.

Frank Chapman

Executive Director

National Alliance Against Racist
and Political Repression

Mr. EDWARDS. I welcome and yield to the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Conyers.

Mr. CONYERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to underscore the importance of these hearings. This is the Civil and Constitutional Rights Subcommittee of the Congress, and from this committee has come the Civil Rights Acts, the Voting Rights Act, and the reauthorizing of those pieces of legislation over the years. Twenty years ago, as a matter of fact, we passed the Voting Rights Act which broke, for the first time since the Civil War, the blocking of the black vote in the South.

In the black belt, which includes Alabama, 70,000 blacks are voting in various elections; 138 have been elected to public office. But the one thing that I think we have learned in this subcommittee is that the struggle for civil rights in America will be written in two phases. The first will be the breaking down of racial barriers and the enacting of laws that support the Constitution involving the right to participate in the electoral process. The second phase of the history of the struggle for civil rights in America will turn around enforcement.

This subcommittee has spent thousands of hours with the Department of Justice and their representatives trying to reclarify, to

reinvigorate, to motivate and to keep them moving precisely toward the end of the legislation that is written so clearly and unambiguously. So this hearing becomes important to determine what direction the Department of Justice is moving in.

It is really critical that we document it. There are still Americans who can't believe that it is exactly what it is. There are still people who think not everybody has the right to vote in the United States of America. There are still Members of Congress who do not understand the incredible, subtle, and overt barriers to participation in the electoral process that are operating right this minute. That is why I am very pleased to have worked with the chairman of this subcommittee, Congressman Edwards, across the years, ever since I came to Congress. He has held hearings throughout the South.

We need to go back there more, but the fact of the matter is that there are so many oversight functions of this committee, plus the fact that we are fighting off aggressive reactionary proposals to change the Constitution every month our activities are quite limited.

But I am pleased that we hold this hearing during the week of the 15th Annual Congressional Black Caucus Convention. It is important that we understand that the presence of 20 black Members of Congress is largely a direct result of the laws that have been crafted, the oversight that has been visited, the enforcement that has been forced upon other levels of government.

Today, we are going to learn something else and arm ourselves for a continuation of this struggle. I thank all the witnesses for journeying for long distances to be before this committee today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you, Mr. Conyers, for a very eloquent statement, from one of the great civil rights leaders of the United States, John Conyers from Michigan. It is a privilege to have him as a long-time member of this subcommittee.

Our witnesses this morning will constitute a panel. Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma, AL, representing an area known as the black belt. He has worked many years with legislation for the black right to vote and has introduced a number of pieces of legislation to ensure that.

Mr. Albert Turner from Marion, AL, was a defendant in the first trial, and he is president of the Perry County Civil League, the target of the Justice Department's investigation.

And the Reverend O.C. Dobynes, also from Marion, is an active community leader and was one of the persons summoned by the grand jury in Mobile.

We welcome you all to Washington.

Senator Sanders, why don't you begin.

STATEMENTS OF HON. HANK SANDERS, ALABAMA STATE SENATE, SELMA, AL, ALBERT TURNER, PRESIDENT, PERRY COUNTY CIVIL LEAGUE, MARION, AL; AND REV. O.C. DOBYNES, MARION, AL

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I believe perhaps the best way for me to start is for me to try to give a

little bit of background to the entire situation. I think that is necessary because quite often people look at the situation and say, well, that is not quite so bad.

The key to the entire thing is the tremendous struggle that is going on and how evenly divided that struggle is, so very subtle.efforts have a tremendous impact. It is a difference between having blacks participate in the electoral process successfully and having blacks participate unsuccessfully.

I think I would like to point out that it has just been a very slow process. You have 12 counties in the West Alabama black belt, and 8 of those counties are majority black. The others are in the 40 percent black.

The Civil Rights Act was passed, the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, but it was 1969 before you had any blacks elected by virtue of that. Then it was-that was Greene County. In 1978, before the second count, we were able to obtain a black majority of the county commission and the board of education. Those are the key governing institutions in those counties.

Then, finally, in 1982-by 1982 we had gotten up to 5 of the 8 counties. It was in 1982 that the first questions arose concerning absentee voting. Now the truth is, over the years blacks have been complaining about the absentee process because you go to the polls and blacks would win year after year at the poll, and then when the absentee box would come in, blacks would always lose. I know. My wife ran as a candidate. That happened to her.

As a lawyer, we have participated in voting contests in every single election since 1972. I came to Selma in 1971. Starting in 1972, not a single year has there not been participation in election contests, mostly revolving around absentee votes.

We have asked the Justice Department over the years to look into it. What the Justice Department said to us-they said, in effect, that there are no real laws against that. That is a gray area. What you have to do is learn to use the absentee process. We have worked to learn to use the absentee process within the bounds of legality. Well, in 1982 we three counties secured black voting majorities on the board of education and the county commission. That made five counties; as I indicated to you, one in 1969, one in 1978, and in 1982.

In every one of those five counties there was some kind of local investigation in 1982 dealing with absentee vote by the local district attorney and local grand jury. Some of those were just preliminary; some of them were exhaustive. But not a single indictment arose from that.

I talked to one of the district attorneys because he covers part of the area that I cover, in fact. He said to me the reason we don't have any indictments is because there are blacks on the grand jury and that if we did get an indictment, then we will not get a conviction because there are blacks there.

He said, "I am asking the white"-he didn't say "white;" I want to be honest-he simply said, "I am asking the U.S. attorney to take over." He was frank about it. He says, "Well, if they get a grand jury, it will only have a few blacks on it because they cover the whole southern end of Alabama."