Atlanta Officials Put “Negro” Designation After Coroner Candidate’s Name – Candidate Protests
Atlanta election officials on this day put the designation “Negro” after the name of Aurelius Scott, candidate for the office of Fulton County Coroner.
Scott, an African-American, protested the action on this day, charging that it was designed to pit whites against blacks in the election. White Democrats, meanwhile, tried to pressure Scott to withdraw from the election. The Executive Committee of the Fulton County Democratic Party voted unanimously to ask him to withdraw, but then reversed itself and expunged its original request from the records, apparently out of fear of a federal civil rights investigation.
Learn about the history of the right to vote: Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000)
Read about the struggle for the right to vote: Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (2015)
Learn about President Harry Truman’s Civil Rights Committee, the first presidential report on civil rights. The Report, To Secure These Rights,” was released on October 29, 1947
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here