By March 1948, 21 Southern Conservative Senators signed a pledge to bolt the party if Truman received the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Those Senators were:
John Sparkman, Alabama
Lister Hill, Alabama
John McClellan, Arkansas
William Fulbright, Arkansas
Spessard Holland, Florida
Richard Russell, Georgia
Walter George, Georgia
Allen Ellender, Louisiana
John Overton, Louisiana
James Eastland, Mississippi
John Stennis, Mississippi
Clyde Hoey, North Carolina
William Umstead, North Carolina
Burnet Maybank, South Carolina
Olin Johnston, South Carolina
Kenneth McKellar, Tennessee
Tom Stewart, Tennessee
Lee O’Daniel, Texas
Tom Connally, Texas
Absalom Robertson, Virginia
Harry Byrd, Virginia
Senator Claude Pepper from Florida was the lone Southern Senator who didn’t sign on to the Southern Senator’s pledge.
Senator James Eastland spoke about the pledge on the Senate floor. “If the laws here recommended are passed by this Congress, the groups advocating them have every reason to feel that the Supreme Court, as now constituted, would hold such action Constitutional; thus, the power would be created through the action of Congress to destroy State law and State government[1].”
Meanwhile, the Senator, John Sparkman, said in an interview in early March, “I shall certainly not run (for election) as a Truman Democrat. I greatly deplore his so-called civil rights[2].” Sparkman remained the senior Senator from Alabama until 1979.
After the Southern Dixies had airtime on the radio to tell the American people why civil rights legislation was terrible, the NAACP also demanded airtime to explain why civil rights were good[3].
As the third rise of the Ku Klux Klan began in 1946, the 1948 political atmosphere included a Klan presence. On March 2, about 300 Klan members carried torches to the voting polls in Wrightsville, GA, to stop the Black community from voting. They then burned a 15-foot cross on the county courthouse lawn. The Associated Press called this racial attack on voting “the next phase of the Dixie revolt[4].”
During that Klan gathering, the Grand Dragon, Samuel Green, said if Truman enacted the civil rights program, “blood will flow in the South if the negro takes place at the side of white men through the force of Federal bayonets.”
Four hundred eligible Black people in Wrightsville, GA, voted that day[5].
Georgia Governor M.E. Thompson called for laws to end the Ku Klux Klan’s intimidation meetings in the days after that event. He issued a statement accusing the Klan of delivering the South into the hands of their enemies. His report also accused the Klan of aiding Communists and race-baiters.
Governor Thompson’s statement denounced the Klan and reasserted his opposition to proposed federal anti-lynching laws. Georgia had enough laws to suppress lynching without federal imposition[6].
That next day, Klan Dragon Samuel Green also released a statement calling Governor Thompson a double-crosser. He told the Associated Press that in the 1946 election, the Governor was begging for Klan support for the Lieutenant Governor, and when elected, he called the Klan a respectable organization. Green then said that the thousands of Klansmen who voted for Thompson in 1946 felt their confidence was misplaced[7].
Governor Thompson denied those accusations[8].
During that same week, George Hamilton wrote a letter to Howard McGrath stating that Truman’s civil rights program would cause untold damage to prospects for an equitable solution to the problems of race relations[9]. Hamilton was the director of finance for the Georgia Democratic Party and the National Democratic Committee; he was also outed as a Klan member with a direct quote in the newspaper calling himself “a proud old-time Kluxer and proud of it[10].”
March also brought four Klan meetings with cross burnings in South Carolina[11], three in Virginia[12], and two other Georgia occasions[13][14].
The Virginia House of Delegates passed a resolution calling on Congress to allow the Southern States to handle racial discrimination in their way[15].
In early March 1948, the House Judiciary Committee voted on an Anti-Lynching. Two Northern Republicans joined six Southern Democrats in voting against it. The bill still made it out of committee and was sent to the House, despite its votes[16].
On March 13, the Southern Governors met again in Washington DC, where they adopted the following resolution[17]:
Resolved by the conference of Southern Governors, in meeting assembled in Washington this 13th day of March 1948.
That we go on the record as repudiating the national leadership of the Democratic Partin in sponsoring the so-called civil rights program.
That we recommend to the people in the Southern United States that they fight to the last ditch to prevent the nomination of any candidate for President or Vice President who advocates such invasions of state sovereignty as those proposed in the said program, and we pledge our influence in such respected states. The objectives of the national convention will support and fight for a positive declaration of States’ Rights in the party platform. We will support only candidates for President and Vice President who entertain similar views.
We recommend to the people of the southern states that if the National Democratic Party should nominate any candidate who advocates such an invasion of state sovereignty as proposed in said program, they shall see to it that the electoral college votes of their states are not cast for such nominees. We pledge our influence in our respective states to this end.
March 1948 marks the first sign in which America saw a hint of genuine collaboration with the GOP and the Dixiecrats as the civil rights fight moved to the House floor. The showdown shaped up over an anti-discrimination rider for $1 to the Labor Department Federal Security appropriations bill. The House fought over whether states that did not give equal educational and job opportunities should continue receiving Federal funding for those opportunities.
The Southern legislators in the House, along with the Republicans, wanted the anti-discrimination rider made into a separate bill and removed from an appropriations bill[18]. They got their way and pulled the anti-discrimination rider.
Meanwhile, Mississippi’s State Democratic Party started calling themselves the States’ Rights Jeffersonian Democrats and called for a mass meeting of state Democrats on March 20. Those Mississippi Democrats unanimously passed a resolution to thank Governor Fielding Wright for the stand he took against civil rights.
Wright gave a speech and said, “Even the current international situation should not dissuade Jeffersonian Democrats from their revolt.” He urged every Mississippi Democrat to join the revolt against the “vicious civil rights program of President Truman, which is being passed in Congress by the Republican majority[19].”
While intended to be a mass meeting, only 42 people showed[20].
The group of Southern Democratic Governors announced that they would conduct a fight to the death against President Truman and his civil rights program. In turn, in the March 20 issue of the Detroit Tribune, it was published “Traitors to Democracy[21].” The article stated it was common practice to publish the names of traitors to democracy and the nation and then listed the following:
Governor William Preston Lane JR, Maryland
Governor Fielding Wright, Mississippi
Governor Beauford Jester, Texas
Governor James E. Folsom, Alabama
Governor M.E. Thompson, Georgia
Governor Strom Thurmond, South Carolina
Governor Ben Laney, Arkansas
The Detroit Tribune article said that these Southern Governors over-reached themselves and how they are attempting to return to the days of bedsheets and horsewhips.
April 1948 brought more cross-burning by the Ku Klux Klan across the South[22], mainly to keep Black residents voting in primary elections[23]. Despite that, in Georgia, Black voters did not let the Klan terrorize them and still showed up to vote in unprecedented numbers[24]. There had already been three lynchings in Mississippi alone in 1948[25], bringing the total of lynchings between V-J Day and April 1948 to 70[26].
Anti-lynching legislation in the 80th Congress made it out of both Senate and House committees, but neither chamber brought the bills to the floor for debate.
President Truman was under pressure to ban segregation in the military from multiple organizations nationwide, from the NAACP to the YMCA and the National Bar Association[27].
[1] Gould Lincoln, “Foes of Anti-Lynch Bill Cannot Rely on Filibuster,” Evening Star, (March 7, 1948)
[2] Associated Press, “Only 3 of 14 Democrats Seeking Senate Seats are Pro-Truman,” Evening Star, (March 17, 1948)
[3] The Detroit Times, “NAACP Asks Radio Time to Answer Civil Rights Critics,” (March 27, 1948)
[4] Associated Press, “Forcing of Race Issue by Truman Will Make Blood Flow, Klan Says,” (March 3, 1948)
[5] Associated Press, “Klansmen Says Blood Will Flow; Negroes Don’t Vote,” The Nome Nigger, (March 3, 1948)
[6] Associated Press, “Law to Bar Meetings of Klan Demanded by Georgia Governor,” Evening Star, (March 6, 1948)
[7] Associated Press, “Head of Klan Charges Gov. Thompson Asked for Support in 1946,” Evening Star, (March 7, 1948)
[8] The Northwest Enterprise, “Klan Denounced by GA. Governor as Aid to Reds,” (March 10, 1948)
[9] Louisiana Press Association, “Fight Against Plan to Enforce Civil Rights is Pressed,” The Potters Herald, (March 11, 1948)
[10] The Detroit Tribune, “GOP Set to Break Dixie Anti-Lynch Filibuster,” (March 6, 1948)
[11] The Ohio Daily Express, “SC Editor Warns Governor on Cross Burners,” (March 23, 1948)
[12] Associated Press, “Fiery Crosses Burned on 3 Virginia Highways,” (March 12, 1948)
[13] Jackson Advocate, “State Attorney General Says Nothing Can be Done About Klan Activities,” (March 13, 1948)
[14] Associated Press, “Georgia Paper Fires Circulation Officer in War on Ku Klux,” Evening Star, (March 14, 1948)
[15] Alex R. Preston, “Virginia House Urges Congress to Let South Handle Civil Rights,” Evening Star, (March 5, 1948)
[16] The Chicago Star, “Anti-Lynch Bill,” (March 6, 1948)
[17] Evening Star, “Southern Governor’s Stand,” (March 14, 1948)
[18] Evening Star, “GOP Cool to Plan to Ban Federal Aid in Civil Rights Fight,” (March 8, 1948)
[19] The Lexington Advertiser, “States Rights Jeffersonian Democrats Hold Meeting,” (March 25, 1948)
[20] The Chronicle-Star Combined with the Moss Point Advertiser, “Mass Meeting of Democrats Draws Small Gathering,” (March 26, 1948)
[21] The Detroit Tribune, “Traitors to Democracy,” (March 20, 1948)
[22] The Detroit Tribune, “Grand Dragon Initiates 125 Klan Members,” (April 21, 1948)
[23] Associated Press, “Pastor Says Klan Enforces White Primary in Georgia,” Evening Star, (April 15, 1948)
[24] The Detroit Tribune, “Klan Defied; Georgians Vote,” (April 3, 1948)
[25] Jackson Advocate, “Church Head Cites Brutality Acts in South to US Attorney General,” (April 3, 1948)
[26] North American Newspaper Alliance, “Feeble US Retorts Lend Power to Soviet Propaganda Lies,” Evening Star, (April 3, 1948)
[27] The Detroit Tribune, “Truman Urged to End Segregation in Army,” (March 27, 1948)