Register and Vote (1917)

It is of prime necessity that the colored people of the South should begin to break down the “white primary.” The NAACP proposes to take the matter of the “white primary” into the courts just as soon as it can get a proper case. But the effective way to beat the “white primary” is through registering and voting on the part of the colored South. In Columbia, S.C., recently some six hundred Negroes registered. Immediately the dominant oligarchy became seared. “What do you want?” they asked, expecting a demand for a bribe. “We want,” said the colored voters after careful consultation, “a new high school building.” They got not only a fifty thousand dollar high school but one hundred fifty thousand dollars worth of improvements in their streets; What was done in Columbia is possible all over the South. The Negro must work not only for his own uplift, but he can work for the uplift of the whole South, especially when the white politicians seek to force upon cities and states men whom it would be shameful to put in public office. In Atlanta, Ga., the white nominee for mayor several years ago was a notorious drunkard who was arrested in a bawdy house just before election. It was Negro votes that put a decent mayor in his place despite the “white primary.” The colored women of Arkansas have the chance of their lives. The legislature has given the vote to women “in the primary elections.” They expect only white women to vote in the Democratic primary; but a Republican primary should be organized forthwith, and colored women should vote in it. Some one should apply at the Democratic primary and if refused should take the matter to the courts. It is the chance of a lifetime. Let us not miss it.

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Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1917. “Register and Vote.” The Crisis. 14(1):9–10.