Case: United States v. Winnice J.P. Clement

This case is about whether state officials deprived citizens of the right to register to vote in Webster Parish, Louisiana, without distinction of race or color. On February 18, 2023, the U.S. Attorney General filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Shreveport Division. Plaintiff sued the Registrar of Voters of Webster Parish, Louisiana and the State of Louisiana under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, as amended and sought injunctions against Defendants from engaging in any actions depriving any citizen in Webster Parish of the right to register and the right to vote and from adopting or applying to Black applicants for registration different and more stringent requirements than those applied to white applicants. 

Between January, 1957 and September, 1962, the Registrar administered an oral test on the interpretation of the State or Federal Constitution to Black applicants applying to register to vote. The Registrar introduced this test in 1963 (a time where large numbers of Black persons applied and successfully completed citizenship tests) and did not administer this test to white applicants. The Registrar also engaged in other procedures to delay and hinder the registration of Black applicants but did not impose such procedures on white applicants. Such procedures included requiring Black applicants to produce two witnesses for identification before allowing them to register. On September 13, 1962, the Registrar began using a multiple-choice "citizenship" test. Between September 13, 1962 and June 25, 1963, the Registrar used the application form to discriminate against Black applicants. The application form was used as a test for Black applicants, with twenty four Black applicants rejected (out of 178 applicants) based on "errors" on their application form, even though all these applicants passed the multiple-choice test. In comparison, only one white applicant (out of 527 white applicants) was rejected based on the application form.

The case was assigned to Chief Judge Ben C. Dawkins. On July 14, 1964, the Court found that the Registrar and her deputy engaged in acts and practices which deprived Black citizens of Webster Parish of the rights secured by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and by 42 U.S.C. 1971(a), and that such deprivations were pursuant to a pattern of racial discrimination. The Court enjoined the defendants and their agents, officers, employees, successors in office and all persons in active concert with them from engaging in any act or practice which involves or results in distinctions of race or color in the registration of voters in Webster Parish. Each defendant was specifically enjoined from (a) applying different and more stringent registration qualifications, requirements, procedures and standards to Black applicants compared to white applicants and (b) using the application form in any manner or for any purpose different from and more stringent than that for which it is used in registering white persons in Webster Parish. The Court also ordered the Registrar to notify each rejected application of the specific reason for rejection, and to produce a report to the Clerk of the Court and to the plaintiff on or before the tenth day of every month setting forth the process in receiving and processing applications during the preceding calendar month.

The case was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On March 14, 1966, the case was related to another voter registration case: United States of America v. Joseph Walton Crawford. The order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana was upheld.