How were some blacks able to vote in Jim Crow South?

[walleye26]

I see stats like “only 4% of Georgia blacks could vote in 1963” or “97% of Selma black residents were ineligible to vote.” Who were these small numbers of black voters? Were they rich? Knew influential white residents? How?

[Continential]

They managed to spend the time needed to be a black voter in the South by doing the literacy test and they paid the poll tax.

[Aurelius]

IIRC these numbers were basically zero in the Deep South prior to the 1940s. After WW2 I believe there were some smaller-scale, local efforts at black voter registration.

[Skill and Chance]

IIRC these numbers were basically zero in the Deep South prior to the 1940s. After WW2 I believe there were some smaller-scale, local efforts at black voter registration.

This.  Also, with much of it being handled on the county level, there were exceptions.  In Memphis/Shelby County, black people could vote more or less freely and continuously since Reconstruction. The most Catholic parts of Louisiana pushed back pretty hard against the statewide Jim Crow laws.  The African-American population of Atlanta had some success breaking through as early as the WWII era.  It was basically zero until the 1960's in MS, AL, and VA though.   

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Here's an academic paper on the black vote in the Eisenhower elections that touches on southern black voters pre-1965 if anyone is interested.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

There was a town in Mississippi that was 100% black and held elections.  They elected Republican mayors into the 1980s.

[Aurelius]

There was a town in Mississippi that was 100% black and held elections.  They elected Republican mayors into the 1980s.

I once read about a small black town in Mississippi in an otherwise white county, and the county government allowed the blacks there to vote. However, they would then publish the results precinct by precinct in the local paper. No candidate wanted to be on the record as winning the vote there, and whoever did would spend the time between the first round and the run-off race baiting even beyond normal Mississippi Jim Crow levels to try and escape the stain of being a "n----r lover". I wonder if we're thinking of the same town.

[Fuzzy Bear]

In Memphis, TN, blacks had a long history of voting on Primary and Election Day.

Ed Crump, the political boss of Shelby County, TN (and one of the biggest power brokers in the entire state of TN) routinely turned out black voters in high numbers.  Now these black voters were controlled by Crump and voted for the Crump slate of candidates.  The Crump machine paid their poll taxes.  Crump's operatives would get their black voters to the poll and reward them for voting with a Barbecue Sandwich and a Coca Cola.  Machine politics at its finest.

Memphis, of course, was different.  Outside of the big three (3) Texas cities (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio), Memphis, TN was the largest city in the South in 1950.  Rounding up and controlling a large black bloc vote was all in a day's work for Boss Crump. 

Crump was not a racial liberal.  He was generally considered the leader of the more conservative faction of TN's Democrats.  Estes Kefauver and Al Gore, Sr. were not considered to be Crump men, nor was Gov. Gordon Browning in 1948.  Crump was also supportive of the Dixiecrats to the extent that he wanted TN's electors in 1948 to be named for Thurmond and Wright.  (Crump supported Truman in the end from what I can tell, but he certainly advocated for the Dixiecrats prior to TN naming its electors.) 

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Female BLKS were never allowed to vote until 1965 with Voting Rights in 1920 women were allowed to vote but segregation in the S where 75 percent of BLKS lived until 1948, now only 50 percent lived in S

Most BLKS before 1948 lived in NY now they live in CA, TX, FL , IL and NY and DC

[Vice President Christian Man]

In Memphis, TN, blacks had a long history of voting on Primary and Election Day.

Ed Crump, the political boss of Shelby County, TN (and one of the biggest power brokers in the entire state of TN) routinely turned out black voters in high numbers.  Now these black voters were controlled by Crump and voted for the Crump slate of candidates.  The Crump machine paid their poll taxes.  Crump's operatives would get their black voters to the poll and reward them for voting with a Barbecue Sandwich and a Coca Cola.  Machine politics at its finest.

Despite machine corruption, I wish we had more Southern Dems like Crump during that era.