Source archive Tier A

Chapman v. King, 154 F.2d 460 (5th Cir. 1946)

Chapman v. King, 154 F.2d 460 (5th Cir. 1946), No. 11494, decided March 6, 1946 (Sibley, Circuit Judge). The primary “was appointed to be held July 4, 1944, by the Democratic Executive Committee of the State,” and the call provided: “All white electors who are Democrats and qualified to vote in the General Election … are hereby qualified to vote in said primary.” King “was denied the right by the appellants … solely because he was of the colored or negro race.” Of the State: “It adopts the primary as a part of the public election machinery.” Disposition: “The judgment is accordingly affirmed.” The same opinion allows that “there may be parties composed wholly of whites, or wholly of colored people”; the holding rests on the State's own regulation of the primary.