Lawsuit accuses black officials of violating whites' voting rights

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A federal court trial is expected to end this week in a Justice Department lawsuit seeking an end to "relentless voting-related discrimination" by black political leaders in a rural Mississippi county -- the first suit brought under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that accuses blacks of suppressing the rights of whites.

The lawsuit targets Ike Brown, longtime political boss of Noxubee County, Miss., who serves as chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee and superintendent of Democratic primary elections, and Carl Mickens, circuit clerk for Noxubee County and superintendent of non-primary elections.

The two black officials are charged with engaging in a "pattern of discriminatory action" over a period of several years that resulted in the denial of the rights of white citizens of Noxubee County to "participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice."

The non-jury trial, which is scheduled to conclude later this week and go to U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee, has pitted the county's black-controlled political power structure against government prosecutors, who have accused Mr. Brown and his backers of seeking to rig elections to guarantee that white candidates lost.

Defense attorneys in the case began calling witnesses this week, hoping to counter government accusations that Mr. Brown was "the puppet master" of a far-ranging conspiracy to violate the voting rights of whites.

Mr. Brown's attorney, Wil Colom, told the Commercial Dispatch that the Justice Department in three weeks of testimony had presented only scant evidence that his client was biased against whites as he oversaw Noxubee County elections during his six-year tenure as Democratic Party chief.

"They can't find a racist statement Ike Brown has made since he became chairman," Mr. Colom said.

A defense witness, James Bridges, one of eight black Noxubee County precinct workers called to testify, yesterday told the judge, "We're in charge of the [poll] tables. Nobody else dictates," the newspaper said.

The lawsuit was filed in February 2005 in the wake of a two-year Justice Department investigation into suspected voting irregularities in Noxubee County. The department is seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent any discrimination against voters based on race.

Noxubee County is located about 100 miles northeast of Jackson, the state capital, on the Alabama border. Its 12,548 residents are 69 percent black and 29 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The lawsuit said "racially-polarized" discrimination in the county affected 2,826 white persons of voting age.