Question

The decision in King v. Chapman, (1945) was key in ending which of these in Georgia? A) racism B) discrimination C) the "Jim Crow" era D) the "White Primary"

Answer 1

D) the "White Primary"

The court case between Primus E. King, a religious leader and a barber in Columbus, Georgia, and J. E. Chapman Jr. the chair of the Muscogee County Democratic Party started in 1946.

Primus E. King, an African-American registered voter, had gone to the Muscogee County Courthouse in Columbus to cast his vote on July 4, 1944, in the then-Democratic Party’s primary election, however, he was asked to leave by law enforcement.

Fortunately for Primus E. King, a local physician who co-founded the local branch of the NAACP, encouraged and financially backed Mr. King in his lawsuit filed in federal court, styled "King v. Chapman." Mr. Primus E. King was favored by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, the court concluded that the exclusion of black voters was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Seventeenth Amendments, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal by J. E. Chapman Jr, which ended the State of Georgia's "whites only" primaries.

Answer 2

D) The "White Primary"

The case consisted of the lawsuit made by Primus E. King, an African American who was denied his right to vote in the Democratic Party’s primary election of Columbus, Georgia. According to Georgia statutes, the primaries were only for Whites.

In 1945, United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia ruled in favor of King, by determining that the exclusion of black voters was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Seventeenth Amendments. The decision ended the "White Primary" in Georgia, and eventually, other "White Primaries" of Southern states were struck down too.