For the South, Losing Looked a Lot Like Winning
Part Fifteen: The Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition ruled the 81st Congress.
The Dixiecrats marched on a tide of a resurgence of the South’s slavery spirit. They controlled Congress as if they had won the 1948 presidential election. But, as the Southern Democrats were morally corrupt, they remained unwilling to grant Black Americans their Constitutional rights.
The Dixiecrats wanted to send a message by crucifying Truman. In addition, it was a warning to all others about how dangerous it would be to break with Southern Democrats on their racial stand. Newspapers even referred to the Dixiecrat’s actions as a public spanking of President Truman[1].
On March 30, 1949, Senator Hubert Humphrey, a Liberal Democrat from Minnesota, introduced an NAACP-supported anti-lynching bill. The bill would have given Federal courts jurisdiction over the crime of lynching and provide a maximum fine of $10,000- and twenty years imprisonment for members of lynch mobs. Co-sponsors of the bill included Senator Robert Wagner (D-NY) and Senator Wayne Morse (R-OR)[2].
In Mississippi, Governor Fielding Wright continued to give speeches warning Black Mississippians about attempts to abolish segregation.
While Wright held on to his fight against civil rights, the State of Mississippi regularly robbed Black people of their civil rights[3].
The blatant violation of civil rights included the summer of 1949 and the scheduled execution of Willie McGee[4]. The story of Willie McGee is one of the great miscarriages of justice in the Jim Crow South. In 1945, police arrested McGee in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on a grand theft charge for stealing a truck owned by his employer. Unfortunately, his location put him in the vicinity of a white woman allegedly raped in her home.
Shortly after his arrest, three white policemen forced him into the back of a police car and drove back to the location where the alleged rape happened, in Laurel, Mississippi. The cops threatened to turn him over to the lynch mob that had formed outside the jail if he didn’t confess. The police severely beat him and coerced him into a confession. However, many white citizens in Laurel doubted the charges against McGee. Allegedly, the perpetrator broke into a home of a white mother, raped her while her sick child slept in bed with her, and her husband slept in an adjoining room[5].
Willie McGee’s first trial took place on December 6, 1945. A white lynch mob surrounded and penetrated the courthouse, and the court excluded Black people from the jury. The only evidence in McGee’s case was the coerced confession. There was nothing else and no witnesses linking him to the crime. McGee was held without bail for 30 days prior, denied any visitors, except for his mother, and was without legal counsel until the trial began[6].
Initially arrested on November 3 for theft, on November 9, police added charges of rape. By the December 6 trial, Willie McGee’s attorney asked for a doctor multiple times. McGee needed a doctor to assess and testify on his behalf. McGee’s attorney reported that he had sustained severe head injuries from the police officers who beat and brutalized him after his arrest, and the head injuries affected his cognitive abilities. The judge denied the requests for a physician[7].
Hinds County, Mississippi, robbed Willie McGee of his right to due process. The Southern Negro Youth, the NAACP, and the ACLU all got involved in the case. But, unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference. The all-white jury deliberated for less than two minutes and returned with a death sentence[8].
The second trial happened on November 4, 1946. While waiting for the second trial, a white lynch mob attempted to break into the Hinds County Jail. They intended to lynch Willie McGee and two other Black men also incarcerated in jail. However, two police officers got the three men out of jail in the nick of time. The attorney applied for a change of venue, and the DA moved the case to Forrest County.
During the second trial, the court again excluded Black people from the jury. Similarly, state troopers surrounded the courthouse in anticipation of another white lynch mob’s attempt to capture McGee[9]. Once again, a lynch mob surrounded the courthouse that day. And again, after an 11-minute deliberation, the all-white jury found Willie McGee guilty, sentencing him to death[10].
In the late 1940s, Mississippi never once executed a white man for rape. However, in the Jim Crow era of the Dixiecrat state[11], Black men were often executed when convicted of raping white women.
By excluding Black citizens from the grand jury, Mississippi violated Willie McGee’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment. Once more, his attorney filed an appeal. For the first time in Jones County, Mississippi, Black citizens were part of the 18-man jury. That was the narrative, anyway. It turned out to be a lie.
Alex Heard wrote a book called “The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South.” In this book, he wrote about how, decades after the McGee case, one of the prosecutors bragged about how he changed the role of the grand jurors to include local Black men whom he knew would remain silent. In Willie McGee’s third trial, no Black people served on the jury. The third jury deliberated for less than an hour, and once again, they found McGee guilty and sentenced him to execution, scheduled for the summer of 1949[12].
In 1949, the state issued Willie McGee two stays of execution, scheduling his death for 1950[13]. His only chance of not being executed was if Governor Fielding Wright issued him a pardon. Since Wright was one of the leading Southern racists in that era, Willie McGee never had a chance.
Willie McGee’s story is just one of thousands that tell what the Jim Crow South was for Black men in 1949.
Mississippi, just as in the other Southern States, was a hotbed of hate in 1949. Aside from the Dixiecrats, the Lily-White Republicans, and the Ku Klux Klan, a new hate group called the American Bilbo Club[14] sprung up. Named after the deceased white supremacist Senator from Mississippi, Theodore F. Bilbo. Before he died, Bilbo wrote a book called “Take Your Choice: Segregation or Mongrelization.” The American Bilbo Club was to perpetuate the ideals and objectives Bilbo had laid out in the book.
The Ku Klux Klan sent rising Black baseball stars Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella threats, warning them not to come to the South. They both said they would play baseball wherever the Brooklyn Dodgers told them to play, including the South[15].
In May 1949, the Sheriff of Dade County, Georgia, and three of his deputies were arrested for their activities as members of the Ku Klux Klan after flogging several Black men while wearing full Klan regalia[16]. That summer, a wave of floggings and cross-burnings rocked the entire South.
In Mississippi, at the headquarters of the States’ Rights Democrats, the party dropped the word “Democrats” from their title to become the “States’ Rights Party.” They strategized and formulated a plan to approach the Dixiecrat-Republicans Coalition nationally to form a new national party. The Dixiecrats remained bent upon the continuance of a third party[17].
Meanwhile, labor unions pushed for Congress in Washington DC to get a pro-labor Act in by conference rule. However, the Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition, aiming to keep the Taft-Hartley Act intact[18], was an obstacle that, ultimately, they could not overcome in the 81st Congress.
When union-supported measures hit the Senate floor, the Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition responded with a two-week filibuster[19]. While the Southern Democrats acted in their tradition of using talkathons to block legislation, the Republicans in the Coalition faced a harsh backlash from newspapers around the country[20].
In the eyes of many, the Republicans had sold their soul to the Dixiecrats to save the Taft-Hartley Act in place and continue to exempt wealthy corporations, individuals, and estates from paying their fair share of taxes.
Some of the Conservative Republicans who would team up with the Dixiecrats for legislation in the 81st Congress[21]:
Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (R-ME). Before becoming a Senator, Brewster was the Governor of Maine. During his 1924 run for Governor, it was alleged that he had the support of the Ku Klux Klan[22]. During his time in the Senate, Brewster was a staunch Conservative and vehemently anti-Truman[23].
Senator John Bricker (R-OH). Senator Bricker was an ultra-conservative and a member of the Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition as long as it existed. In 1949, he even urged other members of Congress to form a new political party comprised of Conservative Republicans and Southern Conservative Democrats[24].
Senator Homer Capehart (R-IN). Capehart, sometimes referred to as a nationalist, sometimes as an isolationist, was part of the Conservative Republican voting bloc[25].
Senator William Jenner (R-IN). Senator Jenner often aligned with Mississippi Senator James Eastland on votes. For years, political analysts referred to Jenner as the radical right[26] or an extreme Conservative[27].
Senator Edward Martin (R-PA). Not only did Senator Martin have a Conservative during his time in Congress, often voting with the Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition, but he publicly advocated for the Coalition in speeches[28].
Senator Karl Mundt (R-SD). Karl Mundt, a Conservative isolationist[29], spent a lot of time in the early 50s urging for a permanent Coalition of the Conservatives of both parties. He often spoke about the political power Conservatives would have if they joined their electoral votes[30].
Senator Robert Taft (R-OH). The oldest son of former President William Taft, Senator Taft is one of the political minds that birthed one of the most anti-labor legislation passed in Congress. The Coalition kept the anti-labor laws in place for decades while unions in America disappeared[31]. Taft was the Republican leader on the GOP side of the Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition.
Senator Kenneth Wherry (R-NE). Senator Wherry was a reliable Conservative during his time in Congress[32], and his votes consistently went along with the Conservative Coalition.
It’s important to note that none of these Republican Senators were overtly racist and often voted for civil rights legislation when it came up in the late 1950s and 1960s. Conservative Republicans were isolationists who held positions on the far-right for foreign affairs, while Conservative Democrats were white supremacists who held positions on the far-right for domestic affairs. For the Coalition to be successful, they had to find a similar political ground.
The Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition ruled the 81st Congress, blocking any liberal legislation from getting through, except for a few unimportant measures, like throwing a dog bone. It also meant there were no fundamental changes to the Taft-Hartley Act.
President Truman did have small wins, like a two-year extension on rent-control legislation, which barely squeaked past the Senate[33]. Truman Democrats did manage to get a housing bill passed in the final lap in July. It focused on low-cost housing and slum clearance[34]. Unfortunately, all pro-labor measures introduced in the first session of the 81st Congress failed.
The Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition played a game of dirty politics, and the cost was the misery of the American people. The Coalition served the whims of special interest groups and demonstrated little concern for advancing the general welfare of the American people[35].
President Harry S. Truman had lost control of Congress. Both the House and Senate had a Democratic majority. Yet, Truman could not follow through on most of his campaign promises of civil rights because the Coalition plugged up the Senate and prevented any meaningful legislation from making it to Truman’s desk.
Majority Leader Scott Lucas urged the Senate to take back up the rule change to the filibuster, and on March 15, 1949, Senator Wherry and 51 other Senators offered a substitute amendment. First, the amendment authorized cloture on an affirmative vote of two-thirds of those voting; the substitute required two-thirds of the Senators duly chosen and sworn in. Second, the resolution would apply to any measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate or unfinished business.
Cloture would not apply to any motion to proceed or consider any resolution or proposal to change any Senate's Standing Rules[36]. All other amendments failed, and the substitute amendment ultimately passed with a 63-23 vote. Thus, the new rule permitted 64 Senators to end a debate[37].
Republican Senator Wherry claimed that under the newly amended Rule 22, it would have been possible to break a filibuster and vote on civil rights legislation[38]. However, it didn’t turn out that way. The rule change was dubbed the “Wherry Rule” and set the Senator up for a presidential bid in 1952.
The 1949 Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition in the 81st Congress blocked the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and any anti-poll tax or anti-lynching bills. So, while Truman fell flat on most of his promises, the Republicans and Southern Democrats remained happy.
The Coalition, sometimes called the Dixiegopers in newspapers[39], wasn’t unbreakable. Senator James Eastland and Senator Olin Johnston introduced a home rule bill regarding segregation in DC. The legislation stated that Washington, DC, could pass no ordinance or law regarding racial segregation without being sent to the Board of Elections to qualified electors for a referendum. The bill failed by a 49-27 vote; Republicans voted against the Dixiecrats[40].
[1] Dean Gordon B. Hancock, “Between the Lines,” The Ohio Daily Express, (April 14, 1949)
[2] The Ohio Daily Express, “Senator Humphrey Introduces Anti Lynching Bill,” (March 30, 1949)
[3] Jackson Advocate, “Teachers Sit in Silence as Governor Speaks, (April 2, 1949)
[4] Jackson Advocate, “State Supreme Court Upholds Conviction of Willie McGee,” (April 16, 1949)
[5] Jackson Advocate, “Southern Negro Youth Congress, NAACP Plan Legal Action in MS Rape Case,” (January 5, 1946)
[6] The Daily Bulletin, “Fight to Save Two Condemned Youths,” (January 21, 1946)
[7] Jackson Advocate, “Southern Negro Youth Congress, NAACP Plan Legal Action in MS Rape Case,” (January 5, 1946)
[8] The Echo, “MS Supreme Court Orders New Trial for McGee,” (June 21, 1946)
[9] Jackson Advocate, “Waive Sanity Hearing in McGee Case,” (October 19, 1946)
[10] Jackson Advocate, “Two Negroes Charged with Negro Murder,” (February 14, 1948)
[11] Jackson Advocate, “Death Penalty for Rape a Race Penalty,” (November 11, 1950)
[12] Alex Heard, “The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South”
[13] Chicago World, “Granted Stay by Action in Last Minute,” (June 11, 1949)
[14] The Southern Jewish Weekly, “New Hate Group is Formed in South,” (June 3, 1949)
[15] Harold Friend, “The Brooklyn Dodgers Defied the Ku Klux Klan,” Bleacher Report, (August 26, 2009)
[16] Jackson Advocate, “Sheriff Four Others Indicated in Georgia Floggings,” (May 21, 1949)
[17] The Chronicle-Star Combined with the Moss Point Advertiser, “Over the Editor’s Desk,” (May 13, 1949)
[18] David Lawrence, “Unions Seen Expecting to get Pro-Labor Act by Conference Rule,” Evening Star, (March 24, 1949)
[19] Associated Press, “Congress Roundup,” The Nome Nugget, (April 1, 1949)
[20] United Automobile Worker, “Democracy Defeated by Coalition, GOP Finds Dixiecrat Bed Lumpy,” (April 1, 1949)
[21] Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 81st Congress First and Second Session
[22] United Press, “Ku-Klux Issue is Foremost in Maine Election,” The Indianapolis Times, (September 8, 1924)
[23] Proletarec, “Scandal of Occupation,” (December 11, 1946)
[24] Gould Lincoln, “Bricker Hits Sour Note in New Party Proposal,” Evening Star, (December 6, 1949)
[25] Gould Lincoln, “Indiana Senate Race Regarded as Test of Truman’s Popularity,” Evening Star, (October 26, 1950)
[26] Evening Star, “Conservatives Charged with Fear Campaign,” (December 26, 1955)
[27] Evening Star, “The Senate and the GOP” (December 3, 1957)
[28] Associated Press, “Martin in Florida Urges Coalition,” Evening Star, (February 17, 1952)
[29] Doris Fleeson, “Trouble Ahead for Eisenhower,” Evening Star, (August 25, 1952)
[30] Associated Press, “Mundt Sees Coalition to Defeat Fair Deal,” Evening Star, (February 24, 1951)
[31] Bradford V. Carter, “The Marshall Plan’s First Birthday,” The Potters Herald, (April 14, 1949)
[32] Gould Lincoln, “Elections Could Play Hob with Senate Leadership,” Evening Star, (October 26, 1950)
[33] George Smathers, “Congressional Grist Mill,” The Key West Citizen, (May 5, 1949)
[34] Lowell Mollett, “On the Other Hand,” Evening Star, (July 7, 1949)
[35] Toledo Union Journal, “Politics and Human Misery,” (March 25, 1949)
[36] J. A. O’Leary, “Delay is Likely on Compromise Cloture Action,” Evening Star, (March 16, 1949)
[37] Associated Press, “Coalition Compromise Terms Formally Approved in Senate Today by Vote of 63 to 23,” The Key West Citizen, (March 18, 1949)
[38] J. A. O’Leary, “Taft Says Senate Can Pass Some of Rights Bills,” Evening Star, (March 17, 1949)
[39] The Potters Herald, “AFL and CIO Rejects Dixiegop Proposal,” (April 28, 1949)
[40] The Ohio Daily Express, “Eastland-John Segregation Amendment to Washington Home Rule Bill Defeated,” (June 10, 1949)