LIBERALISM EMERGES IN DIXIE
Hastie, William H.
LIBERLISM EMERGES IN DIXIE By William H. Hastie Governor of the Virgin Islands In OUR LARGE COUNTRY the interest of millions of people in representative government must be aroused and...
...Those who have sought to travel it before have been turned back...
...The legal outlawry of the white primary is unshackling the Negro voter, and none of the new schemes hurriedly devised to maintain racial disfranchisement has* managed to survive judicial scrutiny...
...It is the translation of this military precept into a plan of political action which I urge upon you...
...Here are millions ef new Voters requiring encouragement, organization and guidance...
...The lines of reaction are being held with increasing difficulty...
...men have planned and worked, and lived and died, leaving to those whs should follow them the task of further advancing the basic conception of the Republic...
...Buttoo often the agrarian leaders viewed the Negro as a tool to be used in emergency, later to be discarded, rather than a respected partner in an honorable association for remaking the South...
...The recent •expose ot the Tammany Ring in New .York has satisfied all right-thinking men thai the power exercised by .stroog^Odies...
...At ,the .same time in Florida a Reconstruction legislature was fighting valiantly against the encroachments .Ofmonopoly- The words of a member, leading that fight—he happened to be a Negro—have a contemporary ring: "The frept owe of Florida ha* . been dishonest corporations, ringsV and cliques, with an eye single to their central interest...
...be recognised and agreed • that, the formerly disinherited of the Southpoor whites and poor blacks alike— wore slowly but surely laying the, foundation for an enlightened and...
...Military tacticians tell us that in such a situation a general offensive is called for and can succeed...
...This is our day, I think we shall be equal to its demands...
...and l» recent y**rs as *he first Negro to be appointed Governor of the Virgin Islands...
...The 'ground swell is apparent and its latent power, is incalculable...
...In such an offensive the strongest and most enduring assault is directed at the point where a break-through will be decisive...
...Throughout the nation the forces opposed to effective and informed political action by all of the people are on the defensive as never before...
...The trjie resultant of progressive and re«$onery forces and opinion in thi* Kwt be reflected in the $o long as millions of Araer: Pit of them underprivileged— neither the opportunity to oast IJfoMrtngful ballot -nor the informa8*0§i jmderstanding .essential to .the ing of political choices calculated roinflte their own interest...
...Yes, there were many Southerners who believed In fair employ- , mens practices in 1172...
...There were bitter men and venal .men, and stupid men then even as now on both .sides of controversies...
...I predicted that with opportunity and understanding the South would come to assume the leadership in American liberalism...
...democratic community in the years, , immediately following .the Civil &ar.< It ill behooves our generation, .which h«3 tolerated and still .toiejrates our more corrupt and.oppressive local politicai machines, to disparage the Reconstruction on the basis of multiple . hearsay originating with those whose purpose has been to condemn rather than to describe...
...Millions with no experience in the exercise of the franchise must be given the opportunity to vote and a zealous interest in*advancement through political effort...
...pot the learned, more than the Ignorant...
...To make ours such a nation...
...LIBERLISM EMERGES IN DIXIE By William H. Hastie Governor of the Virgin Islands In OUR LARGE COUNTRY the interest of millions of people in representative government must be aroused and stimulated...
...Racial antagonisms artificially nurtured for a lbng time must be overcome...
...We shall also recommend that the proprietors of ail foundries, factories, and other industrial establishments, in employing mechanics or workmen, make no distinction between the two races...
...Mistakes wore made, inexcusable things were done, yet through It all can be seen a people in the midst of revolutionary change moving toward a decent and progressive solution of their problems...
...i THE GOVERNMENT CAN NEVER work well so long as the process of choosing representatives is the antithesis qf .effective democratic action i» any major area of Jhe country...
...No other institution of our national government so .constantly reflects—for better or | worse—-ihe working of the plan of the Republic...
...And so tbey made the accomplishment, of this political revolution a condition' preeedent to the re-admission of the Confederate States to the IJnion...
...But, whatever individual motives may have been, all were agreed that each of the Southern states, ]xeoently in rebellion, should not' return ,to the pre-war .feudal oligarchy, but...
...Much of the attention of this convention b,a.s been focused upon the Congress, and rightly so...
...j What followed has rarely .been the' subject of competent objective appraisal...
...Today and tomorrow wc are haying another chance, the best chance of all —a chance for the plain people of the South, regardless of race—to'make this section a center of progressive and liberal political thought and action...
...not the haughty .heirs of . distinguished names, more than the humble Sons of obscurity and unpropitious fortune...
...greater wisdom should be able to achieve today...
...Yet I believe it w'U ultimately...
...The electors are to be the greet body of the people of the United States...
...But such leadership needs all of the help that liberal fellow Americans can provide.' We can anticipate the fulminations against outside interference so often experienced when, other Americans try to help their southern neighbors in progressive endeavor...
...There is already emerging a Southern leadership of men who believe in.the South and in democracy too, who are neither dismayed by the great' power of entrenched reaction, nor confused by the bogey of race...
...Universal, free public schools were the most insistent demand and stand ns the greatest monument to the enfranchised plain people of that time...
...There is a nucleus of organized labor which can be expanded vastly with the friendly assistance which such an organization as ADA can afford...
...Here was a chance to enlist the Negro as an eager volunteer in a people's crusade...
...SUCH WAS THE DIRECTION in which the South was moving, haltingly, but I believe .surely, in the early .HJWs...
...I suppose there are none, six months after November, who, at the o{her extreme, are unduly sanguine about the job of making our political institutions 'work effectively, and it is perhaps as well that after the dejection of last summer and the jubilation of the /all, events of the winter have brought us back to sober consideration of the functioning of our political institutions...
...The Tom Watsons and Ben Tillmans, great leaders of that epoch, debased, then destroyed the crusade, they led when they came to make common cause with, the reactionary forces they originally set out to defeat, reuniting on the sorry premise that agreement on keeping the Negro down was mote, important than disagreement along bites of...
...At any rate, there they -were, some motivated by abolitionist zeal and genuine belief in political democracy, others concerned primarily with the preservation of 'their (Own ;power...
...We shall further recommend that hereafter no distinction shall exist among citiiens of Louisiana in any of our public schools, or slate institutions of education, or in any other public institution supported by the Stale, City or'Pariah...
...May I close with a reference to the faith and vision of the men who created our American, plan of government...
...In 1872 the Reform Party of Louisiana was headed by General Beaureguard and other thoughtful citizens who, though veterans of the Confederate Army, turned their backs on the bitter-enders of the Confederacy and at the same time sought to attract the more moderate Republicans to their standard...
...Vndwbtejuly this organisation will WW various steps immediately ,or in W near future in sunppr.t of j na^>«M ,Ingram of liberal legislation during .|he .gist Congress...
...genuine political tlcay.a go...
...There are untapped resources of democratic action in the church and fraternal organizations which are such powerful forces in the southern community...
...in the South...
...But it is the life,'and not the death of the epoch, which shows us what we in our supposedly...
...Hastie haa pursued a distinguished career In the service of his race and nation...
...And that was a more advanced conception for those times than any plank of the 1948 Democratic platform is for these times...
...if the disinherited' —all of them—are made to know that . they ^re part of a crusade for a better life...
...The following is the major part of a speech delivered before the Second Annual Convention of Americans for Democratic Action, held in Chicago, April 8-9...
...Instead, Crusader and Saracen alike sought only to hire him on occasion, as a mercenary, when their own forces seemed inadequate for the election day* battle...
...But if that statement is anticipatory today, I believe it can, with sustained effort, be made a current truth during this generation...
...THIS IS THE TIME for calculated boldness...
...Millions must be brought to understand the choices 1p be made and they must be given a Jjee and fair chance to cast an effective ballot...
...It did bring the Negro back into the political picture for a time...
...If this prediction is correct, the liberal forces of America have no intelligent choke "but to concentrate upon the ttrenQthening of liberalism in the South...
...if the spectre of racism, ia laid low by* leaders who have the courage to talk straight as well as the Intelligence to think straight—the face of the South will be lifted, its stomach will be less empty, and what is also important to a genuinely religious people, there will be some soul redemption, too...
...In state after state there was agreement on the social obligation of the state to educate all of its people...
...In South Carolina in 1870, for example, 15,000 Negroes and 11,000 white children were reported as attending the newly opened unsegregated public schools...
...The postwar economic problems of the area were terrific...
...composed of many corporations, la ihe most dangerous to .the public good and safety...
...THE PROSPECT is more favorable than ever before for democratic action...
...One local newspaper reported my speech under the caption: "Hastie Calls South Leader in Liberalism...
...The first attempt followed immediately after the Civil War...
...The body politic is a whole, and we must promote its good health...
...Fundamentally, of course, whatever affects the functioning of our national government is every American's business...
...Incidentally, I have never heard similar complaints against any form of outside assistance to apostles of the status quo in the South, and this observation covers the most recent general elections...
...Not the rich, more, than the poor...
...It was ¦ Madison who gave us this "ringing OwlmtlUtt of our national political creed: £p O^Vv 111 "Who are to be the electors...
...But, Wmnw>i> •un*u the .political ^n»t« ^f 4he South is changed, jaitil m .Progressive forces of wat area are -greatly strengthened, until the liberal and progressive membership of the Congress elected from southern states Is greatly enlarged, the legislative progress of liberal programs will continue to be blocked or at least seriously impeded...
...Here is an excerpt from their platform—and remember it was issued by Louisianans who could be called neither "carpet-baggers" nor "scalawags": • ' ' "That we shall advocate by speech, pen and deed, the equal and impartial exercise by every citlsen of Louisiana of every civil and political right -guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and by the laws of honor, brotherhood and fair dealing...
...Should substitute a more democratic order wi^h'both the Negro,and the poorer whites fully enfranchised...
...It seems ~ almost a contradiction of terms these days to observe that the men .then exercising national power were called ''racial Republicans...
...Jr*e knif>w .the story qf> how this erg died a'violent'death at the hands of those counter-revolutionists who took up arms but hooded their faces while the North, having accomplished what it wanted, complacently looked the other way...
...First as a Federal judge, then as Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War...
...Only recently I had occasion, speaking in the South, to point out that the predominance of the underprivileged in that area, and the disproportionately large advantages to be derived by the South from a national program of liberal sociai legislation, should logically place that section in the forefront of every drive for so beneficial a program...
...If leadership has the wis-, dom to direct people already' overcoming their inertia...
...EXPERIENCE HAS SHOWN that this is a difficult road...
...J^urge that you make this undemanding, the advancement of 4emooraUc action -in the South, a fmmm¥0» program of ADA...
...I do not minimize the difficulties...
...It is our responsibility to attack atrophy or infection in any portion of that body...
...If any are discouraged by the vastness and complexity of these tasks, let them remember November last...
...Sp Populism, which might have built a new South fujty years ago, .only isft .the' old order more firmly entrenched and the Negro mpra securely shackled...
...William H. Hastie has earned a reputation for being an uncompromising fighter for liberal ideas...
...Some suc<** »>»4d Attend such effort...
...The agrarian revolt of the 80's and* 90's was in all logic the second opportunity to bring to the South a reunion of the still disinherited, and to oust the few from selfish domination of the many...
...New organizations must be developed tp contest the field with entrenched oligarchy...
...And Congress in action keeps pounding home one inexorable fact of national politics...
...Sb^sc ..grave defects in the working ^ «J*wOtal processes .are not confined tp any ^part of the nation, hut they ?re.Observable in so very.many.areas # 'the 'SflHth, that special and conWttfog .attcMion should be given to Mtengthening of democratic ac^»4«W...
...Two or three items must suffice to illustrate my point here...
Vol. 32 • April 1949 • No. 18
