Rev. Dallas J. Graham and a Landmark Voting Rights Case in Florida

In the closing months of World War II, as Americans celebrated the coming defeat of fascism abroad, democracy at home remained sharply limited by race. In Jacksonville, Florida, African Americans paid taxes, served in the armed forces, and sustained the city’s economy, yet were denied participation in the only elections that mattered. This exclusion was enforced through the “white primary,” a system that barred Black citizens from registering as Democrats and thereby stripped them of meaningful political power.

In 1945, that system was decisively challenged by Rev. Dallas James Graham, whose determination—supported by local activists and enforced by the federal courts—made Jacksonville one of the first Southern cities to translate a Supreme Court ruling into real political access [1].

Jim Crow Politics and the White Primary

By the 1940s, Florida functioned as a one-party state. The Democratic Party controlled municipal and state offices, and general elections were little more than formalities. Political power was decided in Democratic primaries, from which African Americans were systematically excluded [2].

For decades, this exclusion was defended by the claim that political parties were private associations beyond constitutional regulation. Courts tolerated this fiction until 1944, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Allwright that racially exclusive primaries violated the Fifteenth Amendment [3]. The ruling was sweeping, but it did not enforce itself. Across the South, local officials delayed compliance, testing whether the decision would be applied in practice.

Jacksonville became one of the earliest proving grounds.

The NAACP and the Search for a Test Plaintiff

According to historian Abel A. Bartley, the initiative to challenge Jacksonville’s white primary came from Theodore Redding, president of the local NAACP chapter [4]. Redding understood that legal success depended not only on precedent, but on the selection of a plaintiff who could withstand intimidation and economic retaliation.

Redding approached Rev. Dallas James Graham, the young and widely respected pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church. Graham operated a mortuary that served Black clientele and was therefore less vulnerable to white economic pressure. Even so, he hesitated. Publicly challenging white political control carried real risks for his family and congregation. After careful deliberation, Graham agreed to serve as the test plaintiff [5].

March 1, 1945: A Direct Denial

On March 1, 1945, Rev. Graham went to the Duval County courthouse and attempted to register as a Democrat. He was refused by Supervisor of Registration Fleming Bowden, who stated that Democratic Party rules limited registration to white citizens. The refusal was explicit and unapologetic, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling the previous year [6].

With NAACP support, Graham retained legal counsel and filed suit in federal court. Local newspapers immediately recognized the significance of the case, reporting closely on each development as the litigation moved forward [7].

March 16, 1945: Judge Bayard B. Shields Orders Registration

The case came before Bayard B. Shields, who acted swiftly. On March 16, 1945, Judge Shields ruled that Duval County officials were legally required to register Rev. Graham as a Democrat. He issued a writ of mandamus ordering immediate compliance [8].

In his decision, Shields rejected the argument that party rules could override constitutional guarantees. Graham, the court held, was a qualified elector, and race could not be used as a basis for exclusion. The ruling marked one of the earliest direct enforcements of Smith v. Allwright in Florida [9].

Appeal and Final Affirmation

County officials and Democratic Party representatives sought to delay enforcement by appealing the decision and raising procedural objections. Hearings continued through late March and early April, with newspapers documenting repeated attempts to quash the writ [10].

On April 3, 1945, the appeal was reviewed by Miles W. Lewis, who upheld Judge Shields’s ruling in full. Lewis affirmed that Duval County had no discretion to ignore federal constitutional law and that the refusal to register Graham was unlawful [11].

With that ruling, legal resistance collapsed.

Opening the Ballot Box

The effect of the court’s decision was immediate. African Americans began registering as Democrats in unprecedented numbers. What began with a single application quickly became a mass movement supported by Black churches, civic organizations, and community leaders [12].

By 1946, African Americans made up 21 percent of Jacksonville’s registered voters—12,247 individuals, a transformation unmatched in the city’s twentieth-century history [13]. The political consequences were swift. Candidates who had long relied on racial exclusion were defeated, including segregationist city councilman John T. Alsop, who openly blamed Black voters for his electoral loss [14].

For the first time since Reconstruction, Jacksonville’s Black electorate functioned as a decisive political force.

Legacy

After the case concluded, Rev. Graham returned to the pulpit and continued to pastor Mount Ararat Baptist Church until his death on April 20, 1976 [15]. He never sought public office, yet his impact on Jacksonville’s political history was profound.

Graham v. Shields stands as one of the earliest successful local applications of Smith v. Allwright in the Deep South. Long before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it demonstrated that federal civil-rights rulings could be enforced through strategic litigation, community organization, and the courage of individual citizens.

By insisting that the Constitution apply to him, Rev. Dallas J. Graham helped reopen the ballot box in Jacksonville and reshaped the city’s democratic future.

References

[1] Jacksonville Journal, Mar. 15–16, 1945.[2] Abel A. Bartley, Keeping the Faith: Race, Politics, and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940–1970 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 26–27.[3] Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944).[4] Bartley, Keeping the Faith, 27.[5] Bartley, Keeping the Faith, 27–28.[6] Jacksonville Journal, Mar. 15, 1945, p. 1; Florida Times-Union, Mar. 16, 1945.[7] Jacksonville Journal, Mar. 26, 1945; Apr. 2, 1945.[8] Florida Times-Union, Mar. 16, 1945, p. 13.[9] Jacksonville Journal, Mar. 15, 1945.[10] Jacksonville Journal, Mar. 26, 1945; Apr. 2, 1945.[11] Jacksonville Journal, Apr. 3, 1945; Florida Times-Union, Apr. 17, 1945.[12] Bartley, Keeping the Faith, 28.[13] Bartley, Keeping the Faith, 28–29.[14] Bartley, Keeping the Faith, 29.[15] Bartley, Keeping the Faith, 28.