Apartheid. USA 1988

November 6, 1987:

For years blacks outnumbered whites in Edwards, Mississippi, but whites nevertheless controlled the town government. But by 1985 blacks had come to dominate local government, holding all five seats on the Town Council and the office of the Mayor. Now angry whites, charging that they were not represented in town government, are threatening to sue in Federal court under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the law that blacks used for so long to win representation. Some of the whites have been smiling at their cleverness in resorting to a method used by blacks who are in the minority in many Southern towns. The blacks at Edwards are smiling as well, as they slowly, slowly come to grips with the whites', complaints. The Voting Rights Act spurred black voter registration in this town of 1 700 people and produced early electoral gains. Over the years Edwards's white population dwindled and the ratio of blacks increased by 70 percent.^170.

170. The New York Times, from a report by Ronald Smothers