Voting Registration Pace Remains Slow in Alabama

Mar. 1, 1965 - In spite of rain and Sheriff James Clark, twice as many Negroes as ever before went through the voter-registration process at the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Ala., today.

But the pace was almost as slow as ever in neighboring counties of the Alabama “Black Belt,” where the Negro’s campaign for equal voting rights is reaching out for a toehold.

Dr. Martin Luther King wound up a day of courthouse tours in the Black Belt by confronting a voting registrar in Hayneville, the county seat of Lowndes County, where Negroes outnumber whites 4-1 but no Negro is registered to vote. Dr. King asked why that was so.

“There is a better relationship between the Negroes and whites here than anywhere in the world,” said the registrar, Carl Gohlson (left). “If you folks would stay out of Lowndes County, we can take care of the situation. None of you can help the Negroes of Lowndes County.”

“They have come to us for help,” Dr. King replied. “We don’t want to see any violence here. We had heard that if we work here, there would be violence.”

“I heard there would be violence too,” Gohlson said, “and you can agitate that. Everywhere you have been there has been violence.”

Gohlson then announced that the office was closed and walked off.

At Selma, the Dallas County Board of Registrars opened a second office and provided extra tables and chairs to speed registration. By the end of the day, 266 persons, most of them Negroes, had completed the application for registration. It will be some time before they know how many passed the test and went on the voter rolls, but the completion of 266 applications is a record for one day in Selma. 

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