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Candidacy of Scott For Ga. Coroner Called UntimelyThough Reversed Candidate Who Supported Talmadge for Gov. Quits at Request of County Committee.ATLANTA (NNPA)—Aurelius S. Scott, candidate for coroner in a race with twenty-three white persons, withdrew last Friday at the request of the Fulton County (Atlanta) Democratic executive committee, which then promptly reversed itself and ordered the entire procedure stricken from its records.The reversal came after an Atlanta attorney, George Finch, warned the committeemen that they might be liable to Federal prosecuiion because “the law provides penalties if two or more persons conspire to withhold the rights of any citizen..Meanwhile, Mr. Scott had written out his withdrawal, handed it to the committee and departed. His status was in doubt, since he left the room when the committee reversed itself.Mr. Scott is a brother of C. A. Scott, editor of the Atlanta Daily World, and is a former professor of education and psychology at West Virginia State College.The meeting of the Democratic committee was called last Thursday soon after Mr. Scott qualified. The members were said to fear the possibility that a solid colored vote would elect Mr. Scott in view of the twenty-three other candidates.Colored leaders were upset by the situation, and t?he candidate’s brother called a “closed” meeting last Friday night to discuss it. Editor Scott said tiiat he did not know his brother had qualified until he had read it in the Atlanta newspapers, and that he woull not be supported by 1* is newspaper.“At this stage of our political development in the State,” the editor said, “I do not think it expedient for Negroes to run for public offices. However, at t'he prapei time, I think qualified Negroes have as much right to seek office as any other citizen.”In a turbulent three-hour session, the twenty-three white candidates bickered among themselves as to whether one of them should be chosen “to keep a nigger from becoming coroner of Fulton County.’’ The committee finally voted on the fourth ballot to nominate a formed coi^njty1 commissioner!. Ed Almand, for coroner.Politically, this leaves the 22 other candidates, including Mr. Scott, as “independents”, which in Georgia would be tantamount to defeat. Seventeen said they would abide by the party decision, but six white men indicated they would carry their cases to the voters. Mr. Scott, who left the committee chamber after writing his withdrawal, was completely baffled.“I withdrew,” he said, “because the committee asked me to. I don’t know .where that leaves me. I don’t want to make a racialissue. I just don’t know what I’m to do.”Two suits resigned to keep Mr. Scott from getting the coroner’s office were filed in Superior Court last Thursday in behalf of Franklin D. Rogers, a real estate man. j One sought to compel the county ordinary to appoint a coroner for the unexpired term of Mrs. Faul Donehoo Martin, who resigned. The other asked a mandamus against holding a special election for the post.Mr. Scott supported Eugene Talmadge, who was nominated for Governor, “because I felt he was best qualified for Governor.” Mr. Sc^tt, however, disagreed with MMr. Talmadge on exclusion of colored voters from Georgia Democratic primaries.In New York, Lester B. Gran-* ger, executive secretary of the. National Urban League, said that: the events in Georgia were “an-1 other tragic instance that our in- I ternational aims are frustrated by cantradictions at home. ,“It was probably a difficult judgment for Mr. Scott to make, but severe criticism should be lev- ’ eled not at him but at the forces confronting him,” he said.He regretted that “the Atlanta electorate” was not having an opportunity “to redeem itself in the eyes of liberty-loving Americans | by voting for candidates on their merits.”Channing H. Tobias, executive ’ secretary of the Phelps Stokes Fund, who returned from Georgia Wednesday, said that, liberal elements in Georgia “now seem stunned” by developments of the Democratic party, which recently met “for the purpose of getting Ne-; groes out of the party.”Roy Wilkins, assistant executive secretary of the National Association for the Admancement of Colored People believed that colored people would benefit if “Scott should stand pat.” He said that it was “another instance of the srin’s Negro citizens.”Talmadge intimidation of Geor-Roger Baldwin, executive secretary of the American Civil Liberties Union,, haw “intimidation”, but hoped that Mr. Scott “will think better of it and remain in the race.” The incident “appears to be a violation of Federal law,” he said, “and of concern to theA. C. L. U.”New Jersey Ku Klux Klan AbolishedTrenton — The Ku Klux Klan was outlawed in New Jersey as i “an organization destructive of the j rights and liberties of the people ” ■Supreme Court Justice A. Day-! ton Oliphant issued a judgment of j ouster after Attorney General i Walter D. Van Riper appeared be-1 fore him to testify that “the pur-1 pose and objects of the knights j of the Ku Klux Klan of New Jersey and of the imperial Kloncilium (supreme executive committee) of the Klan of the state of Georgia, to which the Ku Klux Klan of New Jersey is subervient, are not such lawful purposes, and objects as are contemplated toy the statutes of New Jersey.
Newspaper Details
Jackson Advocate
Jackson, Mississippi, US
Sat, Oct 26, 1946
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 13 Feb 2020
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