"Lily White and Hard Right": The Mississippi republican party and black voting, 1965-1980

Journal of Southern History

Volumn 75, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 83-118

  Danielson, Chris ^a  

^a BENEDICT COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61949442733     PISSN: 00224642     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (143)

1. Avis Thomas-Lester, "A Senate Apology for History on Lynching," Washington Post, June 14, 2005, p. A12;
2. William Raspberry, "A 'Sorry' Excuse from Cochran," ibid. , June 20, 2005, p. A15 (quotation); "Cochran and Lott: Sign On Now," Jackson Free Press, June 11, 2006.
3. For lynching statistics in Mississippi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Neil R. McMillen, Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow (Urbana, 1989), esp. 228-33. 1 would like to thank the faculty in the Department of History and Art History at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, for critiquing an early draft of this article, in particular Russell Johnson for his written comments. Thanks also go to the staff of the Special Collections Department in the Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State University, especially Mattie Sink for her assistance.
4. Bill Minor, "Fordice Backs Voting Rights Act Repeal, So Barrett Backs Fordice," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 3, 1991;
5. Stephen D. Shaffer et al. , "Mississippi: From Pariah to Pacesetter?" in Alexander P. Lamis, ed. , Southern Politics in the 1990s (Baton Rouge, 1999), 263.
6. Earl Black and Merle Black, The Rise of Southern Republicans (Cambridge, Mass. , 2002), 4 (first quotation); author's telephone interview with Gilbert E. "Gil" Carmichael, August 31, 2006 (second quotation).
7. For histories of Reconstruction that deal with Mississippi politics, see Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York, 1988);
8. and Vernon Lane Wharton, The Negro in Mississippi, 1865-1890 (New York, 1965). For the twentieth century
9. see McMillen, Dark Journey; Joseph Crespino, "Strategic Accommodation: Civil Rights Opponents in Mississippi and Their Impact on American Racial Politics, 1953-1972" (Ph. D. dissertation, Stanford University, 2003);
10. and Crespino's book that evolved from the dissertation, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution (Princeton, 2007).
11. See also Matthew D. Lassiter, The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South (Princeton, 2006);
12. Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton, 2005);
13. and Jason Sokol, There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975 (New York, 2006). For the best general movement history that also covers some of the elections of the 1960s
14. see John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Urbana, 1994). For the works of political scientists on Mississippi politics
15. see V. O. Key Jr. with the assistance of Alexander Heard, Southern Politics in State and Nation (Knoxville, 1984);
16. Jack Bass and Walter DeVries, The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945 (New York, 1976);
17. Alexander P. Lamis, The Two-Party South (New York, 1984);
18. Lamis, ed. , Southern Politics in the 1990s;
19. Black and Black, Rise of Southern Republicans;
20. and Jere Nash and Andy Taggart, Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2006 (Jackson, 2006).
21. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past," Journal of American History, 91 (March 2005), 1233-63;
22. Dan T. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963-1994 (Baton Rouge, 1996), xiv;
23. Black and Black, Rise of Southern Republicans, 331-32.
24. See also Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (New York, 1995).
25. Lassiter, Silent Majority; Byron E. Shafer and Richard Johnston, The End of Southern Exceptionalism: Class, Race, and Partisan Change in the Postwar South (Cambridge, Mass. , 2006);
26. Kruse, White Flight;
27. Nash and Taggart, Mississippi Politics, 7;
28. Sokol, There Goes My Everything, 274-75.
29. C. Vann Woodward has aptly critiqued the use of the term Sun Belt and the linking of the history of the South and the Southwest. Woodward, Thinking Back: The Perils of Writing History (Baton Rouge, 1986), 140.
30. McMillen, Dark Journey, xiii.
31. Also see Charles Marsh, God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (Princeton, 1997), 4.
32. Black and Black, Rise of Southern Republicans, 146-48. In 1966, for example, six Republicans won House seats from districts that had black populations in excess of 15 percent, including Houston's freshman congressman George Herbert Walker Bush, Ibid.
33. Crespino, In Search of Another Country, 84-85;
34. Bruce J. Schulman, From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South, 1938-1980 (New York, 1991), 215; Resume of Wirt A. Yerger Jr. , Biographies Folder, Box H-l, Mississippi Republican Party Records (Special Collections Department, Mitchell Memorial Library, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi; hereinafter MRPR). Frank R. Parker defines urban areas in Mississippi as municipalities comprising a population of ten thousand or more.
35. Parker, Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi after 1965 (Chapel Hill, 1990), 143.
36. Billy Burton Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo: Rubel Lex Phillips and the Mississippi Republican Party, 1963-1967," Journal of Mississippi History, 47 (November 1985), 240-64, esp. 241.
37. Robert Webb, "Kennedy 'Absolved' of Link to Riders," unidentified newspaper clipping, May 26, 1961, SCR ID # 2-140-1-49-1-1-1, Sovereignty Commission Online, http://mdah. state. ms. us/arlib/contents/er/ sovcom/.
38. Lamis, Two-Party South, 45-46; "GOP's Walker Says He Fears Rusk," unidentified newspaper clipping, November 15, 1965, SCR ID # 10-11-0-25-1-1-1, Sovereignty Commission Online.
39. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, "Ford's Natchez Boycott Symbolic," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 20, 1965, p. 2;
40. "Rubel Phillips Says Governor Did 'Right,'" Meridian (Miss. ) Star, July 2, 1965, p. 1 (quotations);
41. "Negroes Eye State Republican Party," Jackson Advocate, May 14,1966;
42. Numan V. Bartley, The Rise of Massive Resistance: Race and Politics in the South During the 1950 's (Baton Rouge, 1969).
43. Lassiter, Silent Majority, 2-5.
44. Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo," 244. Republican William D. "Billy" Mounger recalls Phillips as being "virtually aphilosophical" when he made his 1963 bid.
45. William D. Mounger with Joe Maxwell, Amidst the Fray: My Life in Politics, Culture, and Mississippi (Brandon, Miss. , 2006), 76.
46. Hinds County FDP News, November 3,1967, p. 1 (quotation);
47. Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo," 260;
48. See Crespino, "Strategic Accommodation," 289 (quotation);
49. Curtis Wilkie, "Farris Wins, Will Become Clarksdale's Next Mayor," Clarksdale (Miss. ) Press Register, May 14, 1969, p. 1;
50. Wilkie, "Ayles, Garmon, Garrett, Weiss Winners in Municipal Races," ibid. , May 21, 1969, p. 1;
51. John M. Mayo, "NAACP Holds Annual Event Here Thursday," ibid. , May 5, 1973.
52. Dittmer, Local People, 420-22;
53. Jason Berry, Amazing Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi (New York, 1973), 50-51.
54. Parker, Black Votes Count, 122-23, 149-51;
55. Bass and DeVries, Transformation of Southern Politics, 208-9;
56. Biography of Clarke Thomas Reed, Biographies Folder, Box H-l, MRPR;
57. Paul Squires to W. T. Wilkins, May 13, 1970, Census Civil Rights Folder, Box G-l, MRPR.
58. Bruce Galphin, "Miss. GOP Chief Blocked Evers Aid Bill," Washington Post, March 20, 1970, p. A12;
59. Don Oberdorfer, "HEW Approves Grant Requested by Evers," ibid. , May 4, 1970, p. A2.
60. Paul Pittman, "Reed Is Facing Trouble on School Desegregation," Greenville (Miss. ) Delta Democrat-Times, February 20, 1969;
61. W. T. Wilkins to Harry Dent, January 6,1968, HEW Coahoma County Schools Folder, Box G-3, MRPR;
62. Wilson F. Minor, "Reed: Chicken-fried Machiavellian or Conservative True Believer?" unidentified newspaper clipping, July 11, 1976, Eyes on Mississippi Folder, Box 10, Wilson F. Minor Papers (Special Collections Department, Mitchell Memorial Library).
63. Mounger and Maxwell, Amidst the Fray, 58 (second quotation), 65 (first quotation), 69-71,75.
64. Author's interview with Gil Carmichael, October 13, 2004, tape recording, Meridian, Mississippi.
65. Mississippi Official and Statistical Register, 1972-1976 ([Jackson], n. d. ), 475, 480;
66. Biography of Gilbert Elzey Carmichael, Biographies Folder, Box H-l, MRPR;
67. J. F. Barbour III to Tommy Giordano, August 17, 1972, Folder 150, 1972 Campaign Correspondence, Gilbert E. Carmichael Papers (Special Collections Department, Mitchell Memorial Library; hereinafter GECP);
68. Membership card of Gilbert E. Carmichael for the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, Folder 16, Organizations, GECP;
69. "Meredith After Winning Withdraws; Dean, Sturgeon in Runoff," Fayette (Miss. ) Chronicle, June 6, 1974, p. 1.
70. Kruse, White Flight; Lassiter, Silent Majority; Mississippi Official and Statistical Register, 1976-1980 ([Jackson], 1980), 432;
71. Michael Barone, Grant Ujifusa, and Douglas Matthews, The Almanac of American Politics, 1978 ⋯ (New York, 1977), 466 (quotation); Untitled and unsigned report, July 31, 1972, SCR ID # 9-31-10-95-1-1-1, Sovereignty Commission Online. Jack Bass and Walter DeVries completely omit mention of Eddie McBride's independent candidacy and lead the reader to believe that Cochran won his election solely by siphoning black votes away from his Democratic opponent. Alexander Lamis gives attention to McBride and credits his 8. 2 percent showing with throwing the race to Cochran.
72. Author's interview with Leslie Burl McLemore, November 19,2004, tape recording, Oxford, Mississippi. For continued reports of voting discrimination in Mississippi in the early 1970s, see Steven F. Lawson, In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics, 1965-1982 (New York, 1985), 231-33.
73. "The Common Touch," Newsweek, September 8, 1975, p. 21;
74. R. W. Apple Jr. , "Republican Courts Mississippi Blacks," New York Times, August 18, 1975, p. 48; author's interview with Fred Banks, June 28, 2005, tape recording, Jackson, Mississippi.
75. Michael Barone, Grant Ujifusa, and Douglas Matthews, The Almanac of American Politics, 1976 ⋯ (New York, 1975), xiii, 455-56.
76. "New Breezes Blowing on the Old Magnolia," Time, November 3, 1975, p. 16;
77. Roland Evans and Robert Novak, "Carmichael's Mississippi Is Viewed," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 18, 1975, p. 8A;
78. Jack Elliot, "Batesville's Backing Its Man, Finch," ibid. , November 1, 1975, p. 20A; author's telephone interview with Gil Carmichael, August 31, 2006.
79. "Cochran Not Endorsing His Fellow Republican," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 16, 1975, p. 14A.
80. "Gil Carmichael Opens Campaign Office Here," Fayette Chronicle, October 30, 1975, p. 1 (quotations);
81. transcript of interview with Gil Carmichael by Jeff Broadwater, Washington, D. C. , July 18, 1991, pp. 9-12, Oral History Project, John C. Stennis Collection (Congressional and Political Research Center, Mitchell Memorial Library, Mississippi State University); "Mrs. Gil Carmichael Campaigns Wednesday in Claiborne County," Port Gibson (Miss. ) Reveille, September 18, 1975, p. 1; Walter C. Gough to Gil Carmichael, October 9, 1975, Folder 328, 1975 Campaign Correspondence, GECP.
82. Robert Clark press conference, undated, Folder 454, 1975 Campaign, GECP (quotations);
83. John M. Perkins to the Voice of Calvary, undated, Folder 47, 1975 Campaign, GECP.
84. "Finch 'Recommended' for Governor; 'Our Only Viable Choice'; Total GOP Posture 'Unredeemable' for Poor," Lexington Advertiser, October 23, 1975, p. 2.
85. Advertisement by Prentiss Walker, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 18, 1975.
86. Advertisement by Elmore Douglass Greaves, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 3,1975, p. 3A.
87. Mississippi Official and Statistical Register, 1976-1980, pp. 497, 500;
88. Gil Carmichael to President Gerald Ford, November 12, 1975, Folder 167, General Political, GECP;
89. Linda Buford, "Kirksey Vote: No Counties Won, No Black Support," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 6, 1975, p. 10A;
90. Jack Elliot, "Finch Shows Rural, Black Strength," ibid. ; author's interview with Leslie Burl McLemore, November 19, 2004.
91. Harry S. Dent, The Prodigal South Returns to Power (New York, 1978), 31-32;
92. Jules Witcover, Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency, 1972-1976 (New York, 1977), 446-47.
93. Witcover, Marathon, 446 (first and fourth quotations);
94. Dent, Prodigal South, 32 (second and third quotations).
95. James Young, "GOP Looks to Blacks," undated, unidentified newspaper clipping, Charles Pickering Folder, Box J-18, MRPR.
96. W. F. Minor, "GOP Factional Quarrel Deepens," New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 18, 1976, section 1, p. 23 (quotation).
97. Gil Carmichael to Richard Cheney, June 26, 1976, Folder 201, General Political, GECP;
98. Charles Pickering to Gil Carmichael, August 10,1976, Folder 194, General Political, GECP;
99. Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (New York, 2003), 395,429; author's telephone interview with Gil Carmichael, August 31, 2006;
100. Author's telephone interview with Gil Carmichael, August 31, 2006 (first quotation);
101. James Young, "GOP Looks to Blacks," undated, unidentified newspaper clipping, Charles Pickering Folder, Box J-18, MRPR (second quotation);
102. "NAACP Object of GOP Wooing," Clarksdale Press Register, November 4, 1977, p. 12 (quotation);
103. Ken Faulkner, "State Black Officials Form Organization," ibid. , November 8, 1977, p. 1; Biographical sketch of Charles Pickering, Biographies Folder, Box H-l, MRPR.
104. "Blacks Are Criticized by Evers for Backing White Candidates," Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 29, 1978 (quotation);
105. Frank Montague Jr. to Charles W. Pickering and Thad Cochran, April 6, 1978, Folder 213, General Political, GECP.
106. Barone, Ujifusa, and Matthews, Almanac of American Politics, 1976, pp. xiv-xv, 458-65;
107. Barone, Ujifusa, and Matthews, Almanac of American Politics, 1978, pp. xix, 462-67;
108. Bill Pardue, "Senate Approves Delegate Election," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, January 22, 1975, p. 1A;
109. Calvin Edward Durden, "All Five Opposed Voting Rights Act," Pascagoula Mississippi Press, August 19, 1975, p. 9A.
110. For the Citizens' Councils and their support for Rhodesia and South Africa, see Neil R. McMillen, The Citizens' Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-64 (new ed. ; Urbana, 1994), xiii.
111. Mississippi Official and Statistical Register, 1980-1984, pp. 454-55;
112. "The District, County, and Precinct Coordinated Approach to the Recruitment of Black Voters for Thad Cochran in the U. S. Senate Race," Folder 215, General Political, GECP (quotation);
113. Jo Ann Klein, "The GOP Sale," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, August 28, 1978, p. 3A.
114. Vern E. Smith, "A Different Campaign," Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine, November 5, 1978.
115. Author's interview with Gil Carmichael, October 13, 2004 (first and second quotations);
116. Gil Carmichael to Leon Bramlett, March 24, 1976, Folder 412, 1975 Campaign Correspondence, GECP;
117. Resume and working draft of Leon Bramlett statement, Biographies Folder, Box H-l, MRPR (third, fourth, and fifth quotations).
118. Leon Bramlett form letter, undated, Folder 82, 1979 Campaign Correspondence, GECP;
119. Dunbar Prewitt Jr. , untitled article, Jackson Reporter, September 20, 1979;
120. "Carmichael Says Fuel Crisis May End Busing," Tupelo Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, July 20, 1979, p. 8;
121. undated Carmichael speech, Folder 261, 1979 Campaign, GECP (quotation);
122. Undated Carmichael speech (quotations) and speech draft. Folder 261, 1979 Campaign, GECP.
123. "Blacks Back Carmichael," McComb (Miss. ) Enterprise Journal, October 3, 1979, p. 1, clipping in Folder 8, 1979 Campaign, GECP;
124. Cullen Clark, "Charles Evers Opposing Winter," Jackson Reporter, October 18, 1979, p. 1 (second and third quotations).
125. Dunbar Prewitt Jr. , untitled article, Jackson Reporter, September 20, 1979.
126. David Bates, "Pickering Ads Claim Allain Against Blacks," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 5, 1979, p. 3A (quotation);
127. Bates, "Allain Clings to 2 Percent Lead in Attorney General Election," ibid. , November 7, 1979, p. 1B;
128. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich;
129. Carter, Politics of Rage.
130. Wayne Weidie, "Batting Average Deceptive," Carthage (Miss. ) Carthaginian, June 16, 1977, p. 13;
131. author's interview with William Winter, September 28, 2004;
132. author's telephone interview with Gil Carmichael, August 31, 2006;
133. Wayne Weidie, "Don't Pack Your Bags Yet," Hazelhurst (Miss. ) Copiah County Courier, August 15, 1979, p. 4 (quotation);
134. Jo Ann Klein and David Kubissa, "Big Democratic Sweep Shows State GOP Still Falling Behind," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 7, 1979, p. 1B;
135. Peggy Elam, "Kirksey Defeats Two Candidates to Win Race in Senate District 28," ibid.
136. David Bates, "No Apology: Winter Explains His Desire for White Party Head," ibid. , May 24, 1980.
137. Jo Ann Klein, "State GOP Leadership Remains Intact," ibid. , May 11, 1980, p. 3A;
138. Klein, "GOP Conservatives, Moderates, Expected to Battle," ibid. , May 8, 1980, p. 3A (quotation).
139. David Mould, "Black Group Urges More GOP Support," Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 27, 1980, p. 3;
140. Gene Monteith, "Blacks Hope to Build GOP State Strength," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 27, 1980, p. 3A;
141. Tom Bailey Jr. , "Black Students Get Double Pitch for Reagan," Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 19, 1981;
142. "Blacks Back Carmichael," McComb Enterprise Journal, October 3, 1979, p. 1;
143. Cannon, Governor Reagan, 477-78 (quotation on 478).