
          Southern Electric Cooperatives Still Segregated
          By Pace, DavidDavid Pace
          Vol. 6, No. 4, 1984, pp. 15-16
          
          Only two percent of the board members of rural electric
cooperatives in twelve Southern_states are black, even though the
population of the areas served by those cooperatives is about
twenty-four percent black.
          That's one of the findings of a two-year study of Southern electric
cooperatives by the Southern_Regional_Council.
          "Electric cooperatives were born from the magnificent notion that
they would be grassroots democratic organizations that serve all their
members," said Steve Suitts, executive director of the Council. "But
over time in the South, they have grown to be the very opposite of the
concept that gave them birth."
          Suitts said the Council's Co-op Democracy and Development Project,
which is at least six months away from publishing its findings and
recommendations, found under-representation of blacks on the boards of
electric cooperatives throughout the South.
          Relying on documents the electric cooperatives filed with the
federal_government between 1981 and 1983, Suitts said the project
found that out of a total of 3,035 board members in twelve Southern
states, only sixty-one were black.
          In Mississippi, for example, cooperatives provide electricity to
areas where the population is thirty-seven percent black. But Suitts
said no black ever has served on a co-op board in Mississippi.
          The Southern state with the best representation of blacks on co-op
boards, according to the SRC's findings, was South_Carolina, where
five percent of the 221 board members were black.
          Suitts said board members of Southern electric cooperatives have
been able to perpetuate themselves in office by turning their annual
meetings--those required by law for the election of board
members--into more of an entertainment event or picnic for the
community than a democratic election.
          In addition, he said Council researchers have turned up evidence
that board members use a variety of other tactics to keep themselves
in office, including:
          --Using co-op employees to solicit proxy votes for incumbent board
members when they are reading meters or collecting bills, while at the
same time denying potential challengers to board members access to
lists of the cooperative's customer-members.
          --Scheduling annual meetings at times when most members cannot
attend, and abruptly adjourning such meetings when it appears
incumbent board members might lose their reelection bids.
          Mattie Olson, a spokeswoman for the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association in Washington, said her organization would
have no comment on the SRC's study until it is published and the
association has time to analyze its findings.
          Electric Cooperatives in the South were set up in the 1930s and
1940s under a New_Deal program designed to turn on the lights in rural
America. They were created by local citizens using model legislation
enacted by the various Southern legislatures.
          Because that model legislation provided that cooperatives would be
democratically controlled by their customers, only two Southern
states--Arkansas and Virginia--have given their public service
commissions the authority to regulate the rates charged by electric
cooperatives.
          
            
              Racial makeup of Southern rural electric cooperatives
              
                 state
                Black Population in Areas Served by
Co-op
                 Total Number Co-op Board Members
                Number Black Co-op Board Members
               
                  
                    Alabama 
                     21% 
                     192
                     4 
                  
                  
                    Arkansas
                     17% 
                     178 
                     3 
                  
                  
                    Florida 
                     10% 
                     158
                     2 
                  
                  
                    Georgia
                     26% 
                     399 
                     11 
                  
                  
                    Kentucky 
                     14% 
                     186
                     1
                  
                  
                    Louisiana
                     28% 
                     197 
                     1 
                  
                  
                    Mississippi 
                     37% 
                     201
                     0 
                  
                  
                    North_Carolina
                     22% 
                     304 
                     13 
                  
                  
                    South_Carolina 
                     24% 
                    221 
                     11 
                  
                  
                    Tennessee
                     14% 
                     205 
                     2 
                  
                  
                    Texas 
                     16% 
                     645
                     8 
                  
                  
                    Virginia
                     26% 
                     149 
                     6 
                  
         
            
          
          Source: Southern_Regional_Council
          Based on documents co-ops filed with the federal_government between
1981-1983.
          In one state where co-op electric rates are not
regulated

--Mississippi--Suitts said a study by a legislative committee
found that cooperatives had the lowest operating costs of any provider
of electricity in the state, but they also had the highest rates.
          "If they were entirely government institutions, there would be much
more strict scrutiny of their conduct, and there would be much easier
ways to get at their nonresponsiveness to customers.
          "As it is, they sit right between government and the private sector
and get the benefit of the worst abuses of both," he said.
          
            David Pace writes for the Associated Press.
          
        
