Judge: Miss. County Biased Vs. Whites

[CatWoman]

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge has ruled that a majority black county in eastern Mississippi violated whites' voting rights in what prosecutors said was the first lawsuit to use the Voting Rights Act on behalf of whites.

U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee ruled late Friday that Noxubee County Democratic Party leader Ike Brown and the county Democratic Executive Committee "manipulated the political process in ways specifically intended and designed to impair and impede participation of white voters and to dilute their votes."

The Justice Department accused Brown of trying to limit whites' participation in local elections in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, written to protect racial minorities when Southern states strictly enforced segregation.

"Every American has the right to vote free from racial discrimination," said Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

"The court's ruling is another victory in the department's vigorous efforts to protect the voting rights of all Americans," Kim said.

Noxubee County is a rural area along the Alabama line with a population of about 12,500, of whom 70 percent are black.

Brown did not immediately return calls Saturday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The Justice Department alleged in the 2006 lawsuit that Noxubee County blacks tried to shut whites out of the voting process.

Brown had claimed the Justice Department was misconstruing as racial intimidation his attempts to keep Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Voting_Rights_Lawsuit.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

[tularetom]

1. This sounds a bit fishy to me

With a 70% majority, why should the blacks give a rats ass if every white votes or not. All they gotta do is make sure the blacks vote.

[old guy]

2. Is he any relation to Robert E? Just asking.

[tammywammy]

3. hum

"The judge said there was a pattern to Brown's efforts to keep all whites out of the county's Democratic Party, including holding party caucuses in private homes rather than public voting precincts and inviting only blacks to the meetings."

That's wrong. I don't like the idea of anyone me left out.

[ellenfl]

4. k-k-k-karl will jump all over this as proof of voter fraud.

"Brown, in fact, claims a number of whites as friends," Lee wrote. "However, there is no doubt from the evidence presented at trial that Brown, in particular, is firmly of the view that blacks, being the majority race in Noxubee County, should hold all elected offices, to the exclusion of whites; and this view is apparently shared by his allies and associates on the NDEC, who, along with Brown, effectively control the election process in Noxubee County."

if brown were white and not brown, this would be politics as usual.

wait! i just got it! this article is sarcasm, right?

ellen fl