
          The 39th Year Report of the Southern_Regional_Council,
1983
          By StaffStaff
          Vol. 6, No. 2, 1984, pp. 16-20, 22-24
          
          The Southern_Regional_Council, the South's oldest biracial
organization, consists of 120 Council Members in eleven Southern
states. The work of the Council is supported by foundations, labor
unions and corporations and by the contributions of individuals and
institutions as Council Associate Members. The Council maintains a
small staff in Atlanta where it carries out research, provides
technical assistance and offers educational programs which address
primarily the issues of poverty, racism and ignorance in the American
South. Through its work, the Council also attemps to develop regional
leadership concerned about these enduring problems.
          While the Council's membership is limited to 120, any number of
people may become associate members, participate in the functions of
the Council and receive its bimonthly magazine, Southern
Changes.
          During 1983, the Southern_Regional_Council has continued to work
for a better South through a number of projects.
          
            Voting Rights
          
          Not since the passage of the original Voting_Rights_Act in 1965 has
political participation been at so critical a stage in the South as in
the last few years. The passage of the Act was endangered for almost a
year, and while the Act has 

been renewed once more for a temporary
extension, this renewal will probably be the last; moreover, critical
changes have been made in some of the legislation's provisions, and
these as well as the unchanged sections must be interpreted and
applied rigorously by the US Justice_Department and the federal_courts
if the Act is to sustain its major force for equal suffrage. In
addition, most legislative bodies, including state legislatures, have
been reapportioning their districts which will set in stone the
structures of government in the region for the next ten years.
          To meet the critical needs relating to voting_rights, the Southern
Regional Council has carried out a program of reserach and technical
assistance for the enforcement of the preclearance provision of
Section_5, the review of reapportionment plans for local and state
legislative bodies in the South, and the assessment of the past level
of enforcement and influence of the Voting_Rights_Act.
          For the last four years the Council has maintained the only
organization that systematically monitors Section_5 compliance in the
Southeast. The project's work is designed to examine changes submitted
to the Justice_Department that affect voting in Virginia, North
Carolina, South_Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Louisiana. When potentially discriminatory changes are identified by
the project, contacts are made with local community groups and copies
of the full proposals presented to Justice are obtained. Working with
local leaders, the Council then carries out an analysis of the effects
of the proposed change on the local system of elections and
voting. When the analysis shows racial discrimination in effect to
purpose, the Council assists the local group in requesting the Justice
Department to object to the changes. At times, the Council itself
files such a document on behalf of the local group.
          In 1983, the Project reviewed over 175 Section_5 submissions. This
was done by contacting community leaders in affected jurisdictions and
seeking their impressions of proposed voting changes. The bulk of our
monitoring involved redistricting because of the amount of local
redistricting which occured in Louisiana and Mississippi.
          We were involved in twenty-six Section_5 cases either by assisting
community groups in contesting discriminatory changes or representing
them directly in the administrative process.
          Representation of client groups meant doing extensive research and
community analysis and preparing detailed comment letters to Justice
Department officials. The project prepared twelve comment letters in
1983. On the basis of these letters, the Justice_Department imposed
objections in eight localities.
          We have been called on by community groups throughout the South to
supply model redistricting plans for city and county governing
bodies--plans which would increase the potential for blacks to elect
candidates of their choice. We drafted seventy-eight plans in 1983 and
had requests for at least twenty-five more. (See "Drawing the Lines"
in Southern_Changes (October/November, 1983) for a
discussion of the process of drawing reapportionment plans.)
          In 1983 the Voting Rights Project continued to provide information
on voting and election issues to requesting parties throughout the
nation. Inquiries ranged from wanting to know the number of black
elected_officials in a particular area to developing a list of people
to testify at public hearings during the national PUSH
convention. Requests were received from attorneys, members of Congress
and the press.
          The work of the Project has taken its staff into many towns
throughout the South, contacting voters leagues, NMCP groups,
concerned citizens' organizations and individuals.
          In the last year in North_Carolina, the SRC has continued
activities in and out of the courtroom to develop a redistricting plan
for the state legislature which protects minority voting strength.
          All in all, there may be as many as a hundred new black elected
officials and an even larger number of new, more responsive white
officials by 1985 as a result of the Council's reapportionment
work.
          
            Southern Legislative Research Council
          
          A continuing concern of the Southern_Regional_Council since its
founding in 1944 has been the removal of restrictions against the
right to vote and to hold public office. Beginning with its first
published research on the all-white primary and literacy tests in the
South, the Council has documented the barring of black citizens'
participation in both elected and appointed positions. The Council has
also provided technical assistance to community groups and to minority
elected_officials over the years on a wide range of problems and
issues including education, employment, health_care and housing.
          Despite these efforts and the work of others, the impact of blacks,
women and other elected_officials representing poor and minority
constituents remains too limited; often their first problem is the
reality of small numbers. For example, blacks comprise less than ten
percent of the Georgia General_Assembly in a state that is
twenty-seven percent black. In Alabama, blacks represent less than
fifteen percent of the state legislature, while comprising twenty-five
percent of the state's population. In Mississippi, 

almost forty
percent of the state's population is black, but less than ten percent
of the state legislators are minorities.
          Although limited by numbers, the impact of these legislators is
further reduced by the lack of support available to them for the
performance of their duties. In more than half of the legislatures
outside the South, staff and office space are provided to both house
and senate members; but in most Southern_states resources are severely
limited. In Alabama, the access to research and secretarial staff is
directly controlled by the house leadership. In the senate, only
committee chairs have access to even secretarial staff, and this is
generally limited to the session. Any research needed on a specific
piece of legislation or the budget must be done through the individual
members' own resources, or by staff directly controlled by the house
and the senate leadership. In the Georgia Senate, each senator shares
a secretary, and a year-round research staff is available to that
body. However, the research staff is directly answerable to the
president of the senate and the staff to legislator ratio is one staff
person per twelve senators. Some Southern_states have intern programs,
but these are often limited to assistance during the session only, and
directly controlled by the governor and legislative leadership.
          The decade of the 1980s has brought a substantial increase in
demands on legislators representing poor and black constitutents in
the South. To meet the challenges, these legislators must develop
their own expertise on issues and lead the way for changes. They must
comprehend the issues and the legislative process itself, and
understand how to use the process to benefit their constituents.
          In 1980, the Southern_Regional_Council began the Southern
Legislative Research Council (SLRC) as a special project to provide
research, analysis and technical assistance to state legislators who
represent the interests of black and poor citizens in Alabama and
Georgia. Upon requests, the SLRC assists both black and white
legislators, effectively increasing their capability to use
information and analysis in state government.
          The strength of the SLRC has come from its ability to combine four
components--a reference service, an intern program, an expert network
and an information exchange--to aid "client" legislators and, at
times, community groups. The project has gained recognition for its
accurate and thorough analysis and dependable and reliable
research. Without advocating positions on legislative proposals, the
project's staff works only to respond to requests for hard data and
objective comparisons that are not often available from advocates or
other legislative services.
          During the first three years of the SLRC, legislators in Alabama
and Georgia have shown remarkable growth in their knowledge of issues
and effective representation of the interests of the poor and
blacks. As these legislators have begun to establish increased
expertise on issues, their credibility among colleagues and the
legislative leadership has increased. Just as important, there has
been a growing awareness between black and white legislators who
represent poor and black citizens that they share the same
constitutents and, therefore, must address the same concerns.
          In 1983, the work of the SLRC paralleled the concern of the Georgia
and Alabama legislatures with the state budget and the loss of
government money for social, educational and health_care programs. In
both states, the SLRC staff introduced new legislators to the
budgetary process and carried out analyses of state
appropriations. Among the successful proposals for which the project
provided research assistance was Alabama's approval of funds for
kindergarten. In Georgia the legislature underwrote a sickle-cell
program and supported the operations of the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives. The SLRC also monitored the progress of a federal_court
desegregation order under which the Georgia state university system is
currently operating.
          Additional work involved developing research papers and model
legislation on employment discrimination. In Georgia, the legislature
did pass a comprehensive act covering this subject. The Alabama staff
of the SLRC compiled a report on the impact of hiring practices in the
governmental departments of that state. Staff assistance in Alabama in
1983 also went into the analysis of options for the final state
legislative reapportionment plan. The plan result in the election of
twenty-four blacks, including five senators (the largest number of
blacks serving in the Alabama legislature in modern history).
          The Southern Legislative Research Council also assisted the
Legislative Black Caucuses of Georgia and Alabama in developing formal
structures. During 1983, both caucuses have incorporated. In Georgia,
a caucus clearinghouse network and a committee structure have been
organized as well as a yearly legislative weekend to meet with
community groups and state department heads. In early October, with
the SLRC's assistance, the Georgia Caucus held its first major
fundraising event, netting over $25,000 to be used to 

hire a full-time
legislative staff within the next calendar year.
          The SLRC is also developing ways that will allow its research,
analysis and technical assistance to be used beyond Georgia and
Alabama. We have a list prepared of the most helpful documents
produced by the project and will distribute this list to legislative
bodies in other Southern_states, and to individual legislators or
community groups, upon request. In addition, the SLRC is developing a
list of experts within our legislative network who can provide
assistance to legislators representing poor or black constituents
throughout the South. The project is also attempting to identify
persons who can provide long distance written research, expertise and
analysis on a timely basis on a specific issue that is widely viewed
as important.
          At the request of client legislators, the SLRC is planning a series
of Southern conferences of legislators. These meetings will bring
together legislators, experts, and community groups from throughout
the South to discuss issues as well as the legislative process. The
initial conference will focus on the ways that legislators can be more
effective in the legislative process, especially the budget
process. The second conference, planned for the late summer or fall of
1984, will focus primarily on such issues as taxation, education, and
economic_development.
          The initial conference probably will be limited to black
legislators, and will attempt to identify general goals and objectives
of black legislators throughout the South. The second conference,
focusing on prevailing legislative issues will include other
legislators and community groups representing poor black
constituents.
          
            Coop democracy
          
          The SRC's Cooperative Democracy and Development Project is designed
to work with community-based organizations in the rural South that are
attempting to develop and execute strategies of legal activities,
technical assistance and organizing to achieve democratic control of
utility cooperatives. Rural electric and telephone cooperatives in the
South probably have six billion dollars in assets, own forty percent
of the distribution system for electricity, maintain twenty percent of
the phone systems and serve most rural counties. Few private or
governmental institutions play a more important role than electric
coops in the lives of the poor. These coops constitute the largest,
corporate citizens in the rural South and are the largest
non-governmental employers in the area. Coops not only provide
electricity, they also have an important role for developing new
models for conservation and job-creation. Unlike investor-owned
utilities which have huge, standing plants, electric coops are largely
distributors of electricity and have a self-interest in finding ways
of conserving energy and creating jobs.
          Perhaps the most non-traditional role of a utility coop offers the
most sweeping promise for the Black_Belt and similar areas. Coops have
the capacity to act as prime financing agents for local economic and
social development.
          During the last twelve months the Coop Democracy Project has worked
with coalitions of leaders in more than twenty different areas of the
rural South in their efforts to make cooperatives lower the cost of
electricity to low-income consumers; to redirect financial resources
to provide for local job-creating industries; to finance low-cost,
energy efficient housing in poor areas; and to undertake similar
developments with the coops' own resources. Primarily, the Project is
aimed at accomplishing these efforts through supporting local groups
who wish to elect alternative members to the boards of directors of
the coops.
          As a result of Project activities over thirteen hundred
consumer-members were for the first time directly involved in
community-based efforts to elect minority representatives to six coop
governing boards in North_Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia, Louisiana,
and Georgia. Community leaders received training and information on
the electric coops and their potential in these states and in
Arkansas, South_Carolina, and Alabama.
          The process of bringing about democracy in electric coops has been
both difficult and, at times, dangerous. Earlier this year in
Mecklenberg, Virginia one of the local black leaders who supported a
challenge to the local coop spent much of her evening at the coop's
offices observing the election and returned home to find her house
broken into and flammable liquids poured around several rooms. The
intruder had departed hastily.
          The activities of the Coop Project have not yet succeeded in
changing the control of very many coops. The Project however, has made
some important progress. It has informed a number of consumers for the
first time about their rights as members of the coop and of the
potential of the coop to deal with their problems. In a few instances
the coops have made some changes as a direct response to
challenges. In Mississippi, a black staff member is finally inside the
Greenwood office of the Delta Electric Power Association because of
activities and allegations against the coop. In North_Carolina,
information presented to community leaders is now being used in
negotiations with the coop to garner support for a financial
investment to save black land loss. In other instances the Project has
been partially responsible for the election of alternative boards of
directors such as in Louisiana with the Dixie Electric 

Membership
Cooperative. We have established a sizable body of legal research
which will be helpful to the Project and others in protecting and
exploring the rights of coop members. And, the Project has documented
the widespread patterns and practices of coops in the Deep South
through extensive research at the Rural Electrification Administration
offices, the supervising federal agency for electric coops, and
through monitoring of coop meetings. All of this effort has
established an important base of information and interest for ongoing
activities.
          The last year has also evidenced a wide range of primary techniques
and maneuvers available to coop management to manipulate and frustrate
the efforts of challengers. These techniques include the denial of
access to vital information such as membership lists, financial data,
and bylaws; the changing of by-laws and procedures to fit the
management's immediate needs; and the use of coop
resources— telephones, personnel, trucks, and mailing facilities—
to recruit support for the incumbent management. All of these
maneuvers rest on the coop management's control of information and
resources.
          The Project's experience has also revealed the most vivid examples
of bedrock racial hatred which still persists in this area. In places
suc!1 as Mississippi, coops have gone to extraordinary trouble and
expense to bar any possibility of even one or two black board members
on a coop. Of the more than 750 coop board members in Mississippi,
none is black, even today. In Mecklenberg, Virginia, the mere
possibility that three of twelve black board members would be elected
prompted more than two thousand whites to turn out at an annual
meeting where fewer than seventy people had attended over the past
fifteen years. In every place, "race-baiting" has been used as a
primary tool by which coop management spurs white support when faced
with challenges.
          The Project and local community leaders have also faced resignation
and hopelessness among poor black coop members. Although concerned
with increasingly high utility bills and the need for jobs, many
members feel little urge to attend annual coop meetings. Nonetheless,
the first year o. full activity for the Coop Democracy and Development
Project has seen the beginnings of a base of strength and
experience.
          
            Lillian_Smith Book Awards
          
          Lillian_Smith, Georgia thinker, activist, author and Southern
Regional Council Life Member, died September 28, 1966. The SRC created
the Lillian_Smith Book Awards to honor her life, her work,: and her
commitment, and to recognize in her name those who have contributed to
our understanding of the South, its people, its strengths, problems
and weaknesses. The Smith Awards are given each year to fiction and
non-fiction works which best carry on Lillian_Smith's vision of the
South.
          
            Civil Rights History for Radio
          
          Moving toward a final stage of production is a series of
twenty-eight radio broadcasts documenting recent civil_rights history
in five Southern state capitals. A phase of this project, completed in
January of 1984, involved the preparation of scripts and/or in-depth
treatments for five programs in each of the following cities: Jackson,
Little Rock, Columbia, Montgomery and Atlanta. This first phase also
called for three scripts or treatments for the region as a whole.
          The Project's inital efforts focused on staff organization and
administration, and included the organization of five person advisory
committee, and several part-time re-

searchers and consultants; review
with radio consultants of recording procedures and standards for
broadcast; acquisition and testing of sound equipment suitable for
broadcast quality tape recordings; development of a plan for field
interviews, office procedures and transcriptions; and planning
execution of two meetings with advisory committee scholars for
reviewing the progress and focus of the project.
          The balance of the Project's work has been in four major areas:
interviewing, transcribing tapes, researching, and writing, and
writing.
          The Project staff has recorded more than forty field interviews in
Jackson, Columbia and Montgomery. Preliminary interviews have been
conducted by phone in Little Rock and Atlanta.
          The interviews have included participants at all levels of the
movement, from those who marched in the bus boycott to those who
sought early admission to segregated schools, from picketers to
policemen who arrested picketers, from ministers to lawyers, from
teachers to insurance salesmen. (For examples of these interviews see
Southern_Changes for October/November and December,
1983.)
          In order that the approach to and understanding of change could be
more readily compared from place to place, the interviews have been
structured so that each interviewee would be asked a consistent set of
questions. To be sure that the spontaneous responses which make good
radio were brought forth, the interviewees were also asked appropriate
background questions that allow them to place their personal histories
and experiences in the context of the civil_rights movement.
          About one-third of the interviews have been fully transcribed and
extensive notes have been taken on the rest. All tapes were reviewed
several times in preparation for scripting. This process has been
tedious and time-consuming, but the range and volume of material and
volume of material covered by the project demands that the tapes be
transcribed to allow for careful scripting. Transcription has also
proved necessary because of the historical value of the recorded
interviews to other researchers, writers, and producers. On going
field and library research during the Project has been necessary to
verify and amplify the outlines of the planning phase. Project workers
have conducted an extensive review of documentary materials and
scholarly research related to the civil_rights movement so that the
interviewers could ask better questions, and so the writers of the
scripts and treatments would be better able to know when the oral
histories given by the interviewees needed support or when other
sources should be sought for clarification.
          The Civil Rights History Project expects to finish production in
1985 and to distribute the programs around the region by 1986.
          
            Southern_Changes
          
          Southern_Changes is the bi-monthly magazine of the
Southern_Regional_Council. It is one of the nation's few publications
which provides reporting and analysis with a regional perspective.
          One issue of Southern_Changes in 1983 prompted
author Kurt Vonnegut to write: "When I was a boy, my father promised
me that if this became a better country, it would have to do so
without the help of Southerners or Catholics. That was a long time
ago. How wrong he was."
          
            Regional radio
          
          The Council is exploring the creation of a regional radio network
that will offer programming including news, analysis, public affairs,
documentaries, musical entertainment, and coverage of special events
through contracts with existing commercial broadcast stations. A
marketing survey and demonstration tapes have been completed and in
the next year the Council will seek financing and contractual
commitments from radio stations throughout the South.
          
            The Atlanta Media Project, Inc.
          
          The Atlanta Media Project, Inc. (AMP), was established in 1980 to
find new ways to address the major problems of access, employment, and
the effective use of the electronic media by blacks, the poor, and
others. In partnership with predominantly black Clark College's school
of communications, the project was created by the work of the NAACP of
Atlanta and the ACLU of Georgia, represented by the SRC in
negotiations with national broadcasters. Responsible for securing more
than one million dollars in commitments for the construction of
Clark's new school and its own future operations, AMP began operations
in late 1981 when the Council housed its temporary offices.
          Historically, the absence of blacks, women, and Hispanics from the
airways in the South has been paralleled only by the paucity of
programming about the primary concerns of these groups. During much of
the last two decades, the principal efforts by civil_rights advocates
to remedy these 

problems were aimed at regulating the conduct of
broadcasters and cable companies. With breakthroughs in communications
technology and increasing deregulation. AMP represents a unique
enterprise which will help capture the opportunities to develop new
ways to redress the historical exclusions from the airways.
          AMP was a co-sponsor with the Southern_Regional_Council in
producing the Southern Network. Other projects in last year including
the production of professional quality public service announcements
for the Voter Education Project, Inc.
          
            Southern Network
          
          In a unique experiment in cable television and public affairs
programming, the Southern_Regional_Council and the Atlanta Media
Project coordinated the coverage of the presidential primary election
campaigns in Florida, Georgia and Alabama for cable television systems
through a temporary Southern Network. Some ten hours of coverage per
week began in late January, 1984 and ran for two months. Each
participating cable system set aside time for the Southern Network
programming on one of the system's local origination channels. More
than forty cable systems in the three states carried the programming
of Southern Net--a potential audience of one million
households. Southern Network programs featured gavel-to-gavel speeches
by each candidate, discussion programs with news reporters covering
the campaigns, debates by candidates' representatives and in-depth
examination of candidates' positions on issues.
          Surveys by the Southern Network showed that at least one in four
households watched some of its programming. In late 1984 the Network
may provide coverage of the general election. Other experiments in
cable may be initiated in 1985.
          
            Southern Rural Alliance
          
          The Southern Rural Alliance was created to pool together the
planning, strategies, and resources of its members--the Federation of
Southern Cooperatives, the Emergency Land Fund, the ACLU Foundation
Southern Office, the Voter Education Project, and the Southern
Regional Council--to enable more rapid political and economic change
in the rural South.
          In 1983, the Alliance's efforts were focused on three counties in
Alabama--Choctaw, Greene, and Sumter. While this limited and targeted
effort represented a major revision in our original scope of work, the
Alliance's efforts in one, limited location was designed to
demonstrate the impact and viability of the organization's cooperative
approach to political participation.
          The first task of the Alliance was to obtain a complete and
accurate picture of black voter participation for Greene, Sumter, and
Choctaw counties. The results of the analysis were at times revealing
to both the Alliance members and to local leaders:
          * While there is room for improvement, voter_registration in the
three-county district is not the major problem. Indeed, over 75
percent of persons 18 and over are registered to vote. The difference
between blacks and whites is small.
          * The larger problem for this district is the level of voter
turnout. Voter participation levels among blacks for the three-county
area is somewhere around 60 percent In Greene County, the level is
somewhere around 49 percent.
          * In several boxes and beats, past elections show significant
support for white incumbent candidates who were in races against
well-respected black candidates.
          Using the results as a guide, the Alliance began its work. The
Alliance was somewhat successful in developing a comprehensive list of
precinct leaders for the target counties. It was this list that was
used in putting together a people's nomination convention. A number of
workshops were also conducted with the precinct leaders from the
three-county area. The thrust of these workshops has sought to
identify strategies for getting out the vote. Demonstrating the past
election results, participants were asked to analyze the causes for
such poor turnouts and to explore methods for increasing the
turnout. While registration was not the largest problem, efforts were
aimed to improve the level of registered voters in some low beats. The
recent appointment of two blacks to the local board of registrars in
Greene County has permitted the Alliance to 

counsel those officials
about methods to increase voter_registration.
          The primary election analysis shows that voter_registration and
voter turnout did increase in the November election probably as a
partial result of the Alliance's work.
          
            Maps of the South
          
          Using data from the 1980 census, the Council worked in 1983 to
prepare multi-colored maps of the South, showing--county by
county--the distribution of poor and black_population. The maps are
accompanied by state reports on changes in population and poverty
since 1970. Both maps and reports are scheduled for release in late
April 1984 and are available to the public.
          
            Agricultural Marketing Project of Georgia
          
          The Agricultural Marketing Project of Georgia provides a means by
which small, marginal farmers can develop and maintain markets for
their produce and low-income consumers can have fresh food at low
costs. Since its inception in 1979, AMP-G has operated
under the the administrative and financial controls of the Council.
          In 1983, Project activities reflected a changed emphasis of work,
away from food fairs and toward consumer work in the Atlanta area,
associated with the Atlanta Produce Exchange. Because the various farm
groups which the Project has established was running food fairs around
the state smoothly on their own, primary assistance was no longer
needed.
          Most staff time was devoted to the development and the operation of
the Altanta Produce Exchange which is now independently incorporated,
with its own board, whose members include two farmers and three
consumer group representatives. The Exchange is designed to operate as
a broker between small farmers and buying clubs and other bulk
purchasers of fresh produce. It is set up to function entirely in the
future on revenues generated by the sale of produce.
          
            Southern Roundtable
          
          Each month representatives of regional groups and state coalitions
meet in Atlanta for the Southern Roundtable, an opportunity to
discuss, question and explore common or emerging issues, problems and
concerns in the South. More than fifty groups receive the Roundtable
mailings and attend meetings in Atlanta. The Council hosts the
Southern Roundtable.
        
