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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Selma, Ala., elects frist Black mayor
‘Joe's gotta go!’ community says
By Dianne Mathiowetz
Jubilation spread quickly through the streets of Selma, Ala., on the night of Sept. 12, as the news of James Perkins Jr.'s election victory filled the air. An impromptu caravan of cars paraded up and down main street, horns blaring. Hundreds packed Perkins' headquarters to celebrate.
Selma, site of "Bloody Sunday"--the day in 1965 when hundreds of civil-rights marchers were viciously beaten while crossing the Edmond Pettus Bridge during a voting-rights march to Montgomery--has elected its first African American mayor.
The passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is credited to the heroic women and men who refused to bow to the brutal attacks in Selma and pressed on with the struggle.
Selma's mayor in those days was Joe Smitherman. His reputation as a racist is forever sealed by his televised reference to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. using a racial slur.
Smitherman was the voice of the arch-segregationists who defended and promoted the use of violence and intimidation against those who challenged the racist status quo.
As mayor, Smitherman stalled and prevented by any and all means the registering of African American voters. During one attempt by civil-rights workers to register voters at the local courthouse, the Selma police chief struck the Rev. C.T. Vivian to the ground on the courthouse steps. Smitherman himself stood in the courthouse's doorway to block their entrance.
Thirty-seven years later, Smitherman was still the mayor of Selma. While in 1965 there were fewer than 300 registered Black voters in the city, today they number about 9,000, roughly 60 percent of the registered voters.
Alabama voting-rights activists charged Smitherman with engaging in vote fraud for years. Despite signed affidavits from voters stating that the mayor's office forged their signatures on absentee ballots or bought their votes, state and federal officials have taken no action against him.
Polling places still turn away Black voters. Their locations and hours of operation change unexpectedly. Votes are routinely bought and the number of absentee ballots is astronomical, say members of Selma's "Joe's Gotta Go" campaign.
This grassroots effort to bring electoral democracy to Selma was galvanized by the 1996 mayoral race, when Perkins, an African American businessperson, lost to Smitherman by just 325 votes.
Segregationist challenged
On Aug. 22 of this year, Smitherman faced two challengers: Perkins and Yusef Salaam. The vote count was 4,345 for Smitherman, 4,065 for Perkins and 1,019 for Salaam, forcing the first-ever runoff election in Selma.
Smitherman got 1,000 absentee votes in the election. The U.S. Justice Department refuses to investigate despite pleas from voters.
The "Joe's Gotta Go" campaign redoubled its efforts after the government denied it official recourse. The group called for election monitors and international observers to come to Selma for the Sept. 12 runoff vote.
The critically important character of the struggle to win voting rights in Selma was made nakedly clear Aug. 27 when cars belonging to two "Joe's Gotta Go" activists were firebombed outside the group's office.
Leaflets headlined "R.I.P.," targeting campaign leader Rose Sanders, have been distributed around the town. Campaign members have received threatening phone calls and have been vilified by the mayor's supporters.
Perkins declared to his overjoyed audience that his victory in the Sept. 12 runoff was "a victory over fear."
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