
          The Southern_Regional_Council Beginning the Fifth Decade: Our
Annual Report 
          By StaffStaff
          Vol. 7, No. 3, 1985, pp. 21-26, 28-30
          
          1985 marks the forty-first anniversary of the founding of the
Southern_Regional_Council. Today, as in the past, the Council's vision
of the South's future radiates from a belief in democratic
principles. And, as in the past, the Council's task remains that of
providing research, information, and technical assistance to
individuals and groups who are able to bring change, and of providing
forums out of which Southerners of goodwill can think and act
together.
          Our agenda for the future has been drawn around several broad
concerns in which democratic principles must be affirmed and extended:
the ballot box, the schoolhouse, the courthouse,
ideas and information, the uses of technology and the
workplace.
          
            The Ballot Box: Democratic Government in the South
            
              -extending research and technical assistance to
assure that the Voting_Rights_Act is fully enforced in the South.
            
            
              -drawing model redistricting plans to promote
democratic government while avoiding dilution of minority voting
strength. The SRC's Voting Rights Project has drawn more than 350
state and local plans.
            
            
              -providing state legislators in the Deep South
with nonpartisan research, analysis, model legislation, and current
information about issues relating to the poor and minorities.
            
            
              -assessing policies at all levels of government
that affect the poor and minorities.
            
            
              -researching working conditions, rights and
earnings of workers, and worker ownership.
            
            
              -monitoring the South's electric utility
cooperatives as major democratic, economic institutions that provide
vital services to rural people.
            
            
              Voting Rights Project
            
            The Southern_Regional_Council maintains the only project that
systematically monitors compliance with Section Five of the Voting
Rights Act in Virginia, North_Carolina, South_Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida. We work with local
community groups and their lawyers to oppose racially discriminatory
changes in voting laws and jurisdictions. The Voting Rights Project
examines proposed changes and assists local groups in preparing
comment letters that demonstrate how the changes discriminate against
black_voters. The Project also files such letters on behalf of local
groups.
            To enable minority communities to elect candidates of their choice
to public office, the Voting Rights Project reviews and designs
redistricting plans, primarily--in the last year--for city, county, and
school system governing boards. These plans are used by lawyers in
Section Two litigation, by community groups seeking equitable
representation, or they are submitted to the Justice_Department for
review under Section Five as fairer alternatives to discriminatory
plans. All of our plans are designed to incorporate population and
registration patterns that reflect real levels of political
participation.
            The Project is making special efforts to assist state and regional
groups in developing their capacities and their constituents' interest
in voting_rights enforcement. The SRC Voting Rights Project serves as
a clearinghouse for information on voting_rights issues. We are asked
to provide counsel, courtroom testimony, legal and technical
assistance, information, and referrals to community groups, the media,
lawyers and scholars. In 1984 the Project began publishinga quarterly
newsletter, The Voting Rights Review--an effort to
develop a better system of sharing information among voting_rights
activists. Alex Willingham, a political scientist, expert witness and
Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, 

edits The Voting Rights
Review which circulates among community leaders, experts,
lawyers, and government officials. A complimentary copy is available
by writing the SRC offices in Atlanta.
            Voting Rights Review is a quarterly newsletter designed to cover a
broad range of issues relevant to voting_rights. For information write
to Alex Willingham, Southern_Regional_Council, 161 Spring Street, NW,
Atlanta, Georgia 30303.
            
              Local Redistricting
            
            Constitutional challenges to at large election systems have
increased substantially since extension of the Voting Rights
Act. Community groups such as local chapters of the NAACP and local
voter leagues seek legal remedies when governing bodies do not
voluntarily abolish at large election schemes.
            In 1984, the Voting Rights Project drafted sixty-six redistricting
plans, as well as numerous revisions and modifications. Requests for
SRC assistance came from Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North_Carolina, South_Carolina, Kentucky, and
New_York.
            Only a few sources exist which provide redistricting and mapping
services that truly represent minority interests in the South. Some
state agencies draw plans for local governing authorities. In
Louisiana and Mississippi, private firms compete for lucrative
contracts to prepare reapportionment plans for cities and
counties. Without the assistance of the SRC Voting Rights Project, the
interests of many black communities would get left out of the planning
and decision making in reapportionment.
            
              Section Five Monitoring
            
            In 1984 the Voting Rights Project examined over 150 election
changes in election laws for their discriminatory effects. We assisted
community groups in twenty administrative cases under Section Five.
            When called on to comment on election law changes at the Justice
Department, we present information about the totality of circumstances
in a community that inhibit black registration, voting, or election to
office. We point out any retrogression which may be present in
proposed election law changes, show the discriminatory results, and
evident racial intent.
            The Southern_Regional_Council has adopted the following goals for
its continued involvement in voting_rights activities in the South:
            
              Continue to draft model redistricting plans.  Monitor and
assist in the enforcement of the Voting_Rights_Act.  Assist
groups to prepare for redistricting following the 1990 Census and to
carry out more technical work for themselves.  Develop a
systematic collection and analysis of the major indicators of
political participation, such as voter_registration rates, turnout
rates, voting records and patterns.Southern Legislative Research CouncilThe Southern_Regional_Council began a special project in 1979 to
determine if improvements in non-partisan research, analysis and
technical assistance would help state legislators better address the
needs of poor and black constituents.The Southern Legislative Research Council (SLRC) has aimed its work
in three directions. First, because the legislative black caucuses
represent the greatest institutional presence for minorities and the
poor in Southern legislatures, the SLRC has assisted the caucuses in
developing a capacity for effective use and analysis of information in
state government.Second, the SLRC has provided assistance to all legislators whose
records and constituent populations suggest that its services could be
useful on issues relating to the poor and minorities. Finally, the
SLRC makes available its information to community groups, government
staff members or any legislator.The Southern Legislative Research Council provides reference
services on specific issues, as well as on the drafting and analysis
of legislation. The project's intern program assists legislators by
monitoring daily legislation and committee work, by analyzing proposed
legislation, and by providing summaries.The SLRC's expert network includes researchers from institutions
across the South who offer technical assistance in preparing
materials. The SLRC's information exchange consists of bulletins to
legislators, interested groups and individuals about legislative
events.In 1984, the SLRC helped increase the independence of its client
legislators. The Alabama and Georgia black caucuses have incorporated
and are seeking non-profit status. Now, both can receive outside funds
for education: and research. Also, the SLRC helped the black caucuses
hold successful fundraising dinners featuring nationally known

speakers. The Georgia Caucus raised over $60,000 and the Alabama
Caucus more than $50,000.The Georgia Caucus has opened an office in the state capitol, hired
a small staff, and has begun--with support from Atlanta University--an
intern program. The Alabama Caucus is pursuing the development of an
intern program.Grappling with the increasing cuts in federal funds, much of the
SLRC's effort in the past year has focused on state budget
issues. Client legislators have won increased funding for Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Medicaid programs, and
education-including both public and private black colleges.Client legislators have also secured state money for sickle-cell
anemia programs, health services to the poor, community action
agencies, and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Georgia and
Alabama black caucuses were instrumental in the passage of legislation
providing for increased minority firms' share in state contracts;
urban enterprise zones in economically depressed inner-city areas of
Birmingham and Atlanta; stronger state regulation of employment
discrimination; reform in voter_registration and election laws; and
the passage of state laws making the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., a holiday.In the coming months, the Southern Legislative Research Council
will extend its presence and its influence beyond the borders of
Alabama and Georgia. The SLRC willorganize conferences for legislators in which model legislation
will be produced around specific issues expand its legislative
bulletin to include analysis on regional issues throughout the eleven
Southern_states expand the project to other states in the South,
providing them with staff and intern support during the legislative
session, and ongoing assistance during the interim
period.
            
          
          
            The Schoolhouse: Equal Opportunity to an Excellent, Integrated
Education
            
               -assessing educational reforms in the region to
help maintain integration and improve education in the schools.
            
            
               -examining the effects of segregation academies
on Southern public_education.
            
            
              Equal Education Project
            
            Thirty-one years after the Brown decision, hostility and neglect--in
the South and in the nation--have rendered almost immobile the
historical, broad-based movement for integrated public_schools as an
essential element of an excellent education. The Reagan Administration
has opposed, and reduced appropriations for, almost every special
educational program for the poor, minorities, and the disadvantaged
while it has supported special treatment for already privileged
students, and even for segregation academies.
            The number of private schools in the South stands at an
unparalleled high. Some are struggling, others are prosperous. A few
have a handful of blacks, most remain segregated. In Alabama, for
example, the most prosperous private schools belong to one of two
state associations. There is the Alabama Christian Education
Association with seventy-four elementary and secondary schools and the
Alabama Private School Association which represents fifty four schools
unaffiliated with any church. In these 128 private schools of the two
associations, only a total of sixty black_students are enrolled among
a student population of 

65,000. The other thirty or forty private
schools not in the two state associations apparently have no black
students at all.
            The continued growth of the private, segregated academy is having a
direct, damaging effect on public_schools. In the rural South,
especially, many public_schools remain virtually segregated because
whites are attending segregation academies.
            Too often, white parents South who send their children to
segregation academies join ranks to oppose, successfully, sufficient
financial support for the public_schools. Because local taxes are a
primary factor in school financing in the South, the growth of the
private segregation academies has often resulted in the refusal of
local white voters and rural white legislators to support increases in
local taxes to keep up with inflation. The consequences have been a
physical deterioration of schools and the use of inferior
equipment.
            Reform of school financing in the Southern_states appears to find
its strongest oppositon among legislators and officials
from areas where segregation academies continue to operate most
successfully.
            Last year the Southern_Regional_Council held several meetings
around the region to identify new opportunities for activities to
promote equal education and to determine the best role for the
Council's research and technical assistance.
            We are completing and will soon publish a computer based, annotated
bibliography on the problems of Southern schools--especially the
problems of desegregation--during the last ten years.
            Also, the Council is preparing the first substantial study and
analysis of private schools in the South in over a decade. Focusing
largely on the role and impact of segregation academies on public
education in the South, the final report should be completed in early
1986 and will become the basis for test litigation and proposals for
changing public policies.
          
          
            The Courthouse: Just Men and Women in the Institutions of
Justice 
            
              
                providing research and technical assistance to
groups assessing employment practices of Southern state and federal
courts.
                
                  
                     analyzing the pattern of
appointments of judges in the South to state and federal appeals
courts.
                  
                
                
                  Southern Justice Project 
                
                With some fourteen-thousand employees working in more than
two-hundred courts, the federal_court system is a major employer. Its
practices with regard to equal employment opportunity set standards in
federal and state courts. From 1978 through 1980, the Southern
Regional Council reported on the appointment of federal judges, the
prevalence of their membership in discriminatory private clubs, and
the employment patterns of Southern federal_courts. In 1979 the US
Judicial Conference adopted its first affirmative_action plan after
Congressional hearings were prompted by the SRC findings.
                As federal_courts become more integrated, they stand to become
institutions with employees who appreciate the issues of equal
opportunity and affirmative_action in employment, housing, voting, and
public accommodations.
                Most federal_court employees work in the central cities of the
major metropolitan areas where minority unemployment is highest. The
jobs in the courts require a wide range of experience and
qualifications, but most do not require law degrees. Commonly, court
employees are concerned with the processing and use of information, a
kind of occupation that is among the fastest growing in the
country.
                Over the last five years, there has been no consideration of the
changes and progress, if any, which federal_courts have made in
employment. The Council is beginning to do that study in a project
that will collect and analyze the annual employment reports in all
federal_courts for 1979 to the present, examine and critique the
adopted affirmative_action plans of the federal district and circuit
courts, and encourage compliance with affirmative_action goals in the
courts by acting as a referral and coordinating agency for openings in
the federal_courts in the South.
              
            
          
          
            Ideas and Information 
            
              
                assessing and reporting upon governmental
activities and political participation.
                
                  
                    publishing Southern_Changes, our journal of
opinion, and syndicating SRC-produced materials.
                    
                      
                        working to establish regional radio
programming not now available in the South.
                        
                          
                            beginning production of alternative cable
television programming.
                            
                              
                                preparing a unique microfilmed database with
an on-line computer abstract and index of more than one million
newspaper clippings (from 1944 to 1976) about Southern people and
events.
                              
                            
                            
                              
                            
                            
                              SRC Reports
                            
                            While the Southern_Regional_Council continues to find practical
ways for government to work for all people, it continues its long and
useful tradition of monitoring and assessing government policies and
levels of political participation with regard to the region's poor,
women and minorities. In 1984, the Council published two major reports
on poverty and government programs for the poor. The findings of these
reports document an unprecedented rise of poverty in the South and the
nation and a dramatic decline in the federal assistance to the poor
since roughly 1980.
                            The Council's report, Patterns of Poverty, found
that poverty in the eleven states of the South had increased sharply
since 1979, ending a twenty year decline. Poverty among blacks in the
eleven Southern_states has probably risen to thirty nine percent, a
rate which means that almost two out of every five Southern blacks are
poor.
                            A second Council report, Public Assistance and
Poverty, examined the claim that government benefits
discourage the poor from working. We found that in 1982 seventy-nine
percent of all major government assistance to the poor in the South
went to households headed by women with children or by persons
sixty-five years or older.
                            Our reports show that the work ethic remains strong among the
poor. Nationwide, in 1982, the majority of all poor persons from
fifteen to sixty-five worked part-time or fulltime in 1982. We also
found that when poor families headed by women with children under six,
and by persons sixty-five years or older are excluded, almost
three-fourths of the remaining poor families had someone working
full-time or part-time in 1982.
                            Public Assistance and Poverty revealed that almost
one and a half million recipients of federal assistance in the eleven
Southern_states have been removed from federal poverty programs since
1980. Literally millions of the poor who continue to receive
assistance have fallen significantly deeper into poverty because of
reductions in levels of assistance. The largest number of recipients
removed from the programs were children. The Council estimates that
almost 680,000 children were among the 1.4 million recipients
eliminated from poverty programs in the eleven Southern_states.
                            These findings of these SRC reports have been well publicized
across the nation, but especially in the South. In fact, most of the
major daily newspapers in the eleven Southern_states gave the stories
front page coverage. Many television newscasts included details and
interviews. The reports were used as the basis for many local follow
up stories.
                            Helping to sustain an awareness and discussion of poverty and the
government's responsibility to address it, the Council's reports are
sought and used by a wide range of community leaders, poverty rights
advocates, lawyers, and public officials in and outside the South.
                            Southern_Changes is the bi-monthly journal of the
Southern_Regional_Council. It serves as a forum for ideas, opinion and
analysis on issues and events of importance to the
South. Southern_Changes seeks to involve readers and
writers both inside and outside of the South in reflections upon past
circumstances, present conditions and future prospects for social and
economic justice.
                            
                              SRC Newsclip Service
                            
                            The Southern_Regional_Council maintains a collection of materials
that provides daily, detailed coverage of a thirty year period of
extraordinary change in the South and the nation: the dismantling of
the Southern system of racial segregation and the beginning of an end
to white_supremacy. The collection consists of more than one million
newsclippings and three thousand rare, weekly newspapers. It is unique
in the nation. No other collection of news clipping on the subject can
match its scope and no collection of newspapers matches its ease of
accessibility.
                            Most of the collection was compiled from 1944 through 1974 by the
staff of the Southern_Regional_Council. Over the years, the Council
also has received limited collections of clippings from the US
Commission on Civil Rights, the American Friends Service Committee,
and the Southern Education Reporting Service.
                            The SRC newspaper collection can serve the needs of researchers,
activists, lawyers, reporters and others who
                            
                              Spectrum Cable 
                            
                            Building upon our experience with the SRC-sponsored Southern
Network--which telecast programming by 

satellite to more than forty
cable systems in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia each week night in
early 1984--the Council is laying the groundwork for a national
satellite network on cable television--called Spectrum Cable.
                            From January through mid-March, 1984, the Southern Network sent out
ninety hours of original programming on the presidential primaries in
Alabama, Florida, and Georgia to an audience of between 600,000 and a
million cable television viewers. The project involved the cooperation
of some forty cable systems, two satellite companies and numerous
political and community leaders. The programs were produced as an
alternative to the encapsulated candidate's "image" usually presented
in paid campaign spots and network news coverage. Southern Network ran
gavel-to-gavel debates and unedited campaign speeches from all over
the region. The Network also produced programming that examined the
key issues of the 1984 presidential election. The audience, and the
reaction from the participating cable systems, indicate there is a
strong interest in alternative forms of television programming.
                            Spectrum Cable is now proposing a programming service which
addresses the full range of issues in domestic and international
affairs, includes cultural and musical programming, and provides a
broad spectrum of progressive, civil libertarian, minority, womens and
labor groups an opportunity to reach to a wider audience. A project of
this scope requires extensive consultation with groups who have
national and regional members and who produce programming. It also
needs substantial funds and dedication over a few years to assure that
it happens.
                            We are now searching for ways to place these newsclips on microfilm
and to develop a complete and easy computerized indexing
system.
                            
                              Regional Radio
                            
                            No concept in broadcasting has been underused as much as
regionalism. Because of the structure of the broadcasting industry,
programming has usually been local or national in nature. Local
stations cover and produce programming on local events, and national
networks cover the nation and the world. As a result, regional
programming has been usually spotty or only espisodic.
                            Ad hoc regional networks are often formed to distribute programming
that covers sporting events. Also, state networks offering news,
sports, and information are commonplace. In this void, a regional
radio network can provide a wide, rich variety of unique programming
that covers the people, places and events of the American South
through narration, interviews, music, and drama.
                            The Council's efforts to develop a regional network of radio
programming has been slowed by a several costly technical problems in
the proposed distribution system. One of the solutions to distribution
may come as more radio' stations obtain satellite dishes to receive
programming from national networks. Meanwhile, the Council continues
to capture on audio tape aspects of the South's rich history and
current affairs which escape the attention of the national
media.
                            
                              Press Institute
                            
                            The Council continues to assist the news media in the region and
the nation to understand the American South. Throughout 1984 the SRC
staff consulted with producers and reporters on hundreds of occasions
about developing news stories. The Council assisted almost every major
newspaper and news weekly in the country, as well as reporters from
national television and radio networks in analysing regional trends
and in locating experts and local leaders who could articulate
problems and issues.

                          
                        
                      
                    
                  
                
              
            
          
          
            More Democratic Use of Technology
            
              
                developing specific, direct uses of
inexpensive, accessible computers.
                
                  
                    locating existing, inexpensive databases for
use by community groups in the South.
                  
                
                
                  Project for Community Technology
                
                The application of computer technology continues to change every
aspect of American society. Almost half the labor force in the United
States now holds a job involved with the production, processing or
distribution of information. Thirteen percent of all homes presently
have computers. Almost 750,000 subscribers now connect their computers
to a national databases. Micro-computers are now found in
approximately eighty-five percent of the nation's school systems. In
the next five years the federal_government expects to spend $23.5
billion on software alone.
                As in past societal transformations, the wake of the information
revolution may leave the least resourceful of this generation as the
least able of the next generation.
                Perhaps the most obvious barrier to new technologies is their
cost. Many modest non-profit organizations face steep financial costs
(up to $200 per hour) for the use of most available databases. A
wealth of both private and public information, once available at
little or no charge, is increasingly being converted to databases that
require a high fee for access. Also, less than one percent of the
currently available software is designed for any kind of
not-for-profit organization.
                The consequences of this inaccessibility of non-profit groups to
the new technologies could be far-reaching and severe. The capacity of
groups who have been traditionally under-represented will be further
taxed if their ability to use computers and other communications
technologies does not grow.
                The Council is intent on increasing computer use by local and state
community-based, nonprofit organizations who have a proven record of
representing the poor and minorities in the South. While the SRC has
used mainframe computers for various tasks in the past, we have
operated our own computer system for only the last three years. In
1980, we helped to create a project that explores new means by which
video technology may assist local community groups. The Council is
building an internal computer library from the reports, documents, and
statistics whit we produce. The SRC now uses some national database'
and receives as well as sends information, including the text of
Southern_Changes, by computer to locations across the country. Also,
efforts are underway to increase access to and use of computerized
census data in developing model plans for reapportioning local and
state government districts.
              
            
          
          
            Economic Democracy and the Workplace
            
              
                monitoring and reporting upon the South's
electric utility cooperatives.
              
            
            
              
                assessing the rights and conditions of workers
in the South.
              
            
            
              Co-op Democracy and Development Project
            
            Few private or governmental institutions play a more important role
than electric utility cooperatives in the lives of the rural
poor. These co-ops are the largest corporate citizens and the largest
non-governmental employers in the rural South. Unlike investor-owned
utilities which have huge standing plants, electric co-ops are largely
distributors of electricity and have a potential, corporate
self-interest in finding ways of conserving energy and creating jobs
at the same time. By law, cooperatives are intended to be democratic
institutions, supposed to be controlled by the customers they
serve.
            The SRC's Co-op Democracy and Development Project assists poor and
black Southerners in rural areas in making electric utility
cooperatives more democratic and more responsive to the needs of their
local communities. From Arkansas to Virginia the aim of the Coop
Project is to change 

the role of the coop by changing the control of
the corporation. In the Mississippi Delta, litigation is being pursued
to halt the electric cooperatives' mischief with democratic
practices. In only two or three areas of the South have co-ops'
management made even small efforts to include blacks and the poor on
their governing boards.
            The experiences of the Co-op Project and community groups in the
last two years reveal the tactics that current cooperative managements
use in order to stay in control of the corporation: denial of access
to financial data and membership lists, the quick changing of by-laws
and procedures to fit the management's immediate needs, and the use of
co-op resources--telephone, personnel, trucks, mailing facilities--to
recruit support for the incumbent management. All of these maneuvers
rest upon the coop management's misuse of information and
resources.
            The Council is completing a report on the status of co-ops in the
South. A small portion of the report--relating to the absence of blacks
on co-ops boards of directors--was pre-released earlier. The coverage
led to meetings with the National Electric Cooperative Association to
discuss the plans and progress of the coops.
            The forthcoming SRC co-op study addresses the cooperative
managements' self-perpetration; their exclusion of blacks, Hispanics,
and women from decision-making positions on boards and management;
their patterns of financial irregularities; poor employment patterns;
high electricity rates; and their minimal efforts to create
jobs.
            
              Southern Labor Institute
            
            One of the earliest areas of concern of the Southern Regional
Council was the South's workplace. In 1945, the organization's first
major publication criticized Southern_states for their "attack on
union organization" and tied the 

South's low standard of living with
the region's low wages. Since then, Council analysis has continued to
show the damaging effects of Southern state policies that promote low
wages and ineffective job training.
            The Council has worked to assure fair employment practices
throughout the region. An early SRC project helped to launch
successful campaigns that resulted in blacks being hired for the first
time as policemen in major Southern cities. In the ensuing three
decades the Council's research helped to document the need for federal
legislation to assure equal employment opportunity. SRC technical
assistance contributed vitally in integrating public and private
workplaces throughout the region.
            The Council's concern for the workplace is more than a matter of
history. We continue to report on employment patterns in the region
and to help community groups and labor unions combat discriminatory
practices when they are revealed. Because of the need to improve the
level of wages and working conditions of Southerners today, the
Southern_Regional_Council has created the Southern Labor Institute.
            The Southern Labor Institute strengthens the historical commitment
of the Southern_Regional_Council to address the problems of low wages
and non-union working conditions in the South and to unite the goals
of the civil_rights movement with the struggle for economic
justice.
            Currently, the Southern Labor Institute is assembling data on the
status of workers in the South, especially with regard to wages,
working conditions, unionization, industrial trends, occupational
hazards and discrimination. In the process the Institute is
establishing a network of people, institutions, and organizations
doing research and analysis about the needs and problems of workers in
the South. Using the analysis and data of both SRC and others, the
project is currently preparing a report on the "Workers Climate" in
the South--a unique ranking of how states treat and reward workers.
            For more than four decades, the Southern_Regional_Council has
assisted community groups concerned about political, social and
economic change in the American South. Now, as in the past, the
Council'stask is to provide research, information, and technical
assistance to individuals and groups who are able to bring
change.
          
        
