National Reports

...It calls for a sort of political sit-down strike, as it were, except in the case of Southern Democratic candidates seeking local and state offices and seats in Congress...

...In both instances, the movement toward political revolt has taken place when the occupant of the White House was in a weak political position...

...A militant and forceful man, it is he rather than Wilkins to whom liberals look for vigorous investigation of civil-rights infringements...

...But the Associated Press reported that members of Congress from these states "shrugged off this slight as of little consequence...

...Independent electors in Mississippi, also pledged to the Byrd-Williams ticket, received 42,966 votes, or about 19 per cent of the total...

...In each case, the conservatives enjoy a dominant position because their seniority gives them a stranglehold on Congressional machinery...

...These efforts resulted in a "National States' Rights Conference" held in September 1956 at Memphis, Tennessee...

...When the Democratic National Committee met in August 1949 to choose a successor to McGrath, National Committeemen from the four states supporting the States' Rights ticket were not invited...

...To carry out this intent, the law calls for appointment of an Assistant Attorney General and creation of a civil-rights section in the Justice Department...

...If an effective conservative political party could be established in key states during the next two years, utilizing the leadership, prestige and organizational talents of recognized conservatives of both parties, it could perhaps siphon off enough electoral votes to achieve a balance-of-power position in the selection of our next President...

...Other important considerations are the chances of altering the present civil-rights attitudes of the national Democratic party leadership, the individual's ability to explain and justify the bolting of his traditional party allegiance, and the degree to which involvement in a thirt-party movement might adversely affect his political future...

...It may yet produce some good—not because of its intrinsic merit but because public opinion will not let it fail...

...No "Uncle Tom," but rather a brilliant, quiet, behind-the-scenes man in the image of "Eisenhower modera-ation," he does not bring to the Commission the impact as a Negro that Adam Clayton Powell, Jackie Robinson or Martin Luther King would have brought...

...This slate was pledged to Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia for President and Representative John Bell Williams of Mississippi for Vice President...

...With an initial appropriation of $200,000, it has wide investigatory powers...

...When the 81st Congress convened the following January, Southerners assumed the chairmanship of 11 of the 19 House committees and 7 of the 15 committees in the Senate...

...John Hannah, Chairman of the Commission...

...Finally, individual Southerners in Congress must weigh the possible loss of coveted committee chairmanships which might result if a strong states'-rights party was successful in splitting off enough electoral votes from the 1960 Democratic Presidential candidate to give the Republicans the Presidency and perhaps control of Congress as well...

...A successful revolt by Northern and Southern conservatives might even result in the extension of their present domination of Congress into the White House itself, thereby assuring them a measure of control over the despised Supreme Court as well...

...A major positive factor, however, is Dr...

...He could have had no illusions about the political sentiments of many Southerners who stayed out of the States' Rights camp...

...Reprisals were specifically urged against the two Democratic Senators and eleven Representatives from the South who had worked actively in behalf of the States' Rights ticket...

...When the defiance constitutes contempt, the courts are empowered to levy fines and impose jail sentences...

...Whether the differences facing this nation today can be better resolved by the formation of a third party is to me a matter of conjecture at this time...

...Some seniority-rich Southerners in Congress, however, have privately counseled against third-party talk...

...Despite his overwhelming victor}' in 1956, President Eisenhower is a "lame duck," and Congress is controlled by the opposition party...

...Some weeks ago, the two con» vened the Governors of all states with FEPC legislation at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel...

...then we'll let our Congressmen and Senators beat him down when he needs beating...

...The other available weapon of reprisal at the command of the Truman wing of the party was patronage...

...Presumably, the Commission's chief role will be to unearth civil-rights violations, focus public opinion on the wrongdoers, and suggest corrective measures...

...As president of Michigan State College, Dr...

...I saw Tuskegee, Alabama and the surrounding county gerrymandered in order to make the Negro vote ineffective...

...I saw the entire Negro vote in one Mississippi county thrown in a garbage can...

...In opposing a bolt of the party at the North Carolina State Democratic Convention, Cameron Morrison, former Governor of North Carolina, had counseled the delegates: "Let's step under the Democratic flag and help elect him...

...We have so much more to lose than we have to gain in a third party...

...A possible Southern third-party strategy is spelled out by the Augusta (Ga...

...Ernest J. Wilkins, the lone Negro member of the Commission, is also Under Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower Cabinet...

...Many thought that the doughty Missourian stood little chance of being elected to the Presidency in his own right...

...The Commission is to report regularly to the President and Congress and make recommendations for corrective legislation...

...Southerners, joined by conservative Republicans, succeeded in blocking many of the most important segments of Truman's legislative program...

...Persons deemed guilty of denying prospective voters their right to register and vote may be restrained through civil action by a Federal judge...

...The civil-rights issue, highlighted by Little Rock, has set off the third-party spark now...

...If the fine exceeds $300 or the sentence is more than 45 days, the defendant is entitled to trial by jury...

...As for giving support to the Democratic party's candidate for President, the Southern party members would simply sit on their hands and do nothing to help out...

...they have had little appeal to the average voter because of their narrow sectional or economic viewpoints...

...These Southerners realize the importance of attracting the political and financial support of large blocs of conservatives in other parts of the country...

...The campaign was spearheaded by the Federation for Constitutional Government—coordinating body for White Citizens' Councils in 11 Southern states—and by an organization called For America, active since 1954 in advocating nationalistic and "sound constitutional" principles...

...By William G. Phillips The Little Rock school-integration crisis touched off a new wave of third-party talk throughout the South —particularly after the President's use of Federal troops was applauded by Northern Democratic spokesmen...

...Will South Carolinians support a man for . . . public office if that man's party loyalty extends to embracing a party that promises to use bayonets against Southerners...

...McGrath also told reporters that he expected President Truman "would be lenient with minor offenders among the party's unfaithful...

...Every week brings statements by Northern Democrats in which they announce an intention to ignore Southern voters...

...Harry Truman's victory in 1948 provided the liberal wing of the Democratic party with an opportunity to seize control of the national party machinery and to assert itself in the conduct of Democratic leadership in Congress...

...He had a plurality of over 2 million popular votes...

...Nine days after the group was sworn in, the NAACP announced that it was adding a new staff member whose sole duty was to organize an all-out campaign for registration of Negro voters in six Southern states: Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia...

...Eleanor Roosevelt, publicly called for the ousting of Dixiecrats from the party and urged that opponents of civil-rights legislation be denied committee chairmanships...

...Dissatisfied with the leadership and policies of the national Democratic party, many feel that an open break offers the only honorable political alternative for the South...

...Governor Albert Chandler of Kentucky warned that "a third-party movement might possibly split the Democratic party and lessen the South's chances for representatives in the national government...

...The States' Rights party had relatively little time in which to meet the requirements of state laws to be placed on the ballot, to organize, to raise campaign funds, and to conduct its campaign...

...Had there been three years of advance preparation instead of three frantic months, the outcome of the 1948 election might have been decidedly different...

...Thus, reluctant though some of its members may be, the Commission will be forced to hold hearings and make recommendations...

...He said that "the President was not vindictive" and that "he can't help but forgive...

...they have found it difficult to gain a place on the ballot in many states...

...News says: "It is not at all surprising that the trend of events has brought new talk, in the South particularly, of a 'third party.' Its platform would call for drastic economy in government, a return to the states [of] powers recently taken over by the Federal Government, substantial cuts in taxes, and a better break for the farmers...

...And Virginia's Thomas E. Stanley said: "There is no question that the conservative people of the Southern states are greatly concerned by the 'liberal' trend of both national parties...

...If we can revitalize the party as a truly Democratic party, we have much more to gain than by attempting to sponsor a third-party movement...

...it also received one of Tennessee's electoral votes...

...Louis E. Lomax is a free-lance magazine writer who specializes in reporting on civil-rights developments...

...North Carolina Governor Luther H. Hodges said: "I strongly feel that it would be a serious mistake for the South either to sponsor or follow a third-party movement...

...Just as many conservative Republicans resist "modern Republicanism" today, conservative Southern Democrats opposed ahnost all of Truman's legislative program in 1948...

...Former South Carolina Governor (now Senator) J. Strom Thurmond and his running-mate, Governor Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi, received 39 electoral votes while polling 1,169,021 popular votes...

...A churchman of great repute, Wilkins has never been known as a militant fighter for the rights of his people...

...Seven of them rejected the idea...

...There is a greater degree of initial support for the third-party movement among local politicians who have little to risk in advocating a demagogic cause which might serve as a vehicle to advance their own careers...

...A shift of only 41,000 votes in Ohio and Illinois would have thrown the election into the House of Representatives...

...Such a movement might undertake to throw the Presidential election into the House of Representatives by preventing either major national party from getting an electoral majority...

...With a full-time staff member and scores of volunteers working in the South, the NAACP can lead the Commission directly to the roots of voting discrimination...

...The Conference did draw up a strong "states' rights" platform and endorsed a ticket of T. Coleman Andrews, a Virginia Democrat, for President and Thomas Werdel, a conservative California Republican, for Vice President...

...A conservative third-party movement could thus serve as the vehicle for the realignment of our present two-party system...

...Instead, their common objective has been to prevent either major party candidate from receiving a majority of the electoral votes, thus placing the choice of President in the hands of the rural-conservative majority in the House of Representatives...

...In 1948, it was President Truman's espousal of the recommendations contained in the report of his Committee on Civil Rights...

...Both Eisenhower and Truman were handicapped by serious defections among members of their own party in Congress...

...These Congressmen said, with one or two exceptions, that "in the practical exchange of politics involving patronage, they aren't having any trouble with the National Committee at this time...

...Southern Democrats who remember the kid-glove treatment they received after the Dixieerat revolt of 1948 are carefully pondering their course of action today...

...Soon after the election, speculation began over the political fate of certain Southerners in line for committee chairmanships in the new Democratic Congress...

...The States' Rights ticket carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina...

...An attempt was made to organize a national conservative third party, but this plan was voted down by the delegates...

...These include such questions as the chances for success of a third-party movement, the effect of civil-rights controversy on public opinion in their constituencies, and evidences of strong third-party sentiment at the grassroots...

...The last third party to win electoral votes was the States' Rights Democratic party of 1948...

...The Andrews-Werdel ticket appeared on the ballot in only a few states and used several different party designations...

...The best showing was in Virginia, where as States' Rights party candidates they received 42,964 votes, or about 6 per cent of the total votes cast...

...There is also reason to doubt that the Commission will be inclined to venture very far in its investigations...

...On the other hand, in the event of a Democratic victory, third-party associations might also jeopardize their seniority, patronage and positions of control within the Democratic Congressional organization...

...Chronicle: "Southern Democratic leaders are said to he cooking up new strategy which conceivably could embarrass the party in its quest for the Presidency in 1960...

...As a newspaperman (and a Negro), I witnessed the school-integration rows at Clinton, Sturgis and Little Rock...

...The biggest prod to Commission action, however, will be the NAACP...

...Yet, it also has significant elements of weakness...

...Similar observations were made by Governors James Folsom of Alabama, Le-roy Collins of Florida, Raymond Gary of Oklahoma, Frank Clement of Tennessee, and Price Daniel of Texas...

...However, final action must come from Congress, which for 82 years failed to pass any civil-rights legislation whatever and is most unlikely to be in a hurry about correcting civil-rights abuses reported by the Commission...

...Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives also announced that emphasis in the new Congress would be on "harmony" rather than "punishment...

...However, there is a great deal of growing sentiment in this part of the nation concerning such a movement...

...News and Courier observes: "A great political showdown is likely to come in the South in 1960...

...They received 88,509 popular votes, or 29 per cent of the vote...

...Henry Wallace's Progressive party failed to win an electoral vote in 1948, although he did receive 1,156,103 popular votes...

...This action aroused hopes among Northern Democrats that the patronage weapon might be used against Southern members of Congress who had worked for the States' Rights ticket or who had sat on the fence during the 1948 campaign...

...A more isolated third-party movement took place in South Carolina, where an organization known as the "South Carolina Independent Electors" appeared on the ballot...

...Truman polled 49.9 per cent of the popular vote, thus becoming the first "minority" President elected since Woodrow Wilson in 1912...

...The Greenville (S.C...

...Hannah wiped out campus discrimination within months after taking office...

...The NAACP and other liberal organizations can be counted on to focus the Commission's attention on these conditions...

...At these meetings, it was tentatively decided to by-pass only two Senators who had openly campaigned for Governor Thurmond—Allen Ellender of Louisiana and James Eastland of Mississippi—aiong with a handful of Southerners in the House...

...The Prospects for the Civil Rights Commission By Louis E. Lomax The first civil-rights hill to be passed by Congress in nearly a century was signed into law last September 7. Its primary intent is to protect the voting rights of minorities in both Federal and state elections...

...Influential Northern Democrats, including Mrs...

...So did the Governors of three other states where third-party agitation has been most evident— George Timmerman of South Carolina, James Coleman of Mississippi, and Earl Long of Louisiana...

...President Eisenhower has appointed three Southerners, two Mid-westerners and one Northerner to the Commission...

...The matter was brought to a head at the 1948 Democratic Convention by the reaffirmation of his civil-rights stand in the platform...

...The political stakes in 1960 are high...

...There is yet another cause for concern among liberals...

...The established rules of seniority in the House and Senate were not disturbed...

...Arkansas's controversial Governor Orval E. Faubus declined to answer the poll...

...It received no electoral votes, but polled an estimated 170,000 popular votes in Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia...

...In deciding their course of action, they must carefully weigh a number of complex considerations...

...As the Tampa Morning Tribune editorialized, "We of the South have more members on the Commission than we have a right to expect...

...Truman was elected on a liberal platform by dramatizing issues for which he and Northern Democrats had fought during the 80th Congress...

...They are also fully aware of the disillusionment of segments of the Republican party over Eisenhower's brand of "modern Republicanism...

...Delegates representing right-wing splinter parties in 25 states attended the Conference...

...Most of the third-party movements since the 1930s have come from the right-wing political fringe...

...Also favorable to the Commission's success is the political situation...

...Two indicated that they would look with favor on a third party, while four others refused comment...

...It is in the cards that the national Democrats will match the Republicans in endorsing bayonet rule...

...Its members, who serve for two years, are appointed by the President and confirmed by Congress...

...The Charleston (S.C...

...Finally, the new law provides for creation of a six-man Civil Rights Commission, whose duty is to investigate alleged interference with the right to vote and other civil-rights violations...

...He added that committee chairmanships were a matter for the Congressional Democratic majority to determine, but did indicate that a few Dixiecrats would be barred from leadership positions in the national Democratic organization...

...Andrews had previously served as President Eisenhower's Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

...A poll of the 13 Southern Governors on the possibility of a third-party movement in 1960 was recently conducted by Congressional Quarterly News Features...

...If the defection of Negro voters from the Democratic party is to continue, the Commission will have to offset the energetic action of men like New York Governor Averell Harriman and Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams...

...Shortly after the election, the Collector of Internal Revenue in Birmingham, Alabama was "purged" on the grounds that he had defied an Executive Order requiring fair-employment practices in the Federal service...

...A closer look at the events surrounding the Dixiecrat revolt of 1948 provides several interesting parallels to the present-day agitation for a "states' rights" party in the South...

...He had won despite defections of leading Congressional Democrats to the States' Rights party and the refusal of many Southerners to lift a hand in his behalf...

...The subject of patronage was frequently discussed by Democratic National Committee leaders and members of the White House staff prior to the opening of the 81st Congress...

...Events between now and the next national convention will decide the issue...

...Having worked and voted with conservative Republicans in Congress for many years on a wide variety of issues, they are much closer to this group in political, economic and social philosophies than is generally recognized...

...The chances for the formation of a conservative third party in the South depend to a great extent on the collective judgment of important Southerners who occupy key positions of leadership within the Democratic party in Congress...

...Strongest endorsement of a third-party movement came from Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia: "It appears the South cannot look to the Democratic or Republican party for redress of what I consider the gravest of grievances...

...And NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins told the organization's annual meeting recently that "the fact that the South has three members on the Commission need not be fatal to meaningful accomplishment, but it is due cause for uneasiness...

...Its nominating convention was not held until late in July, several weeks after the Democratic Convention had nominated President Truman and adopted a strong civil-rights plank...

...William G. Phillips is administrative assistant to Congressman George Rhodes, Democrat of Pennsylvania...

...Early in 1956, Northern and Southern "states' rights" groups made initial efforts to coordinate their political activities...

...Yet a shift of only 58,500 votes out of 11 million votes cast in the pivotal states of Ohio, Illinois and California would have given Dewey the Presidency...

...President Truman that year received 303 electoral votes to Governor Dewey's 189...

...Instead of having only a few months in which to plan a possible States' Rights party campaign, they now have more than two years...

...At the conclusion of the meeting, the twelve Governors, eleven Democrats and one Republican, proposed that the Eisenhower Administration allow state anti-discrimination agencies to fill Federal contract appointments within the respective states because "we have the machinery and willingness to eliminate job bias and the Federal Government does not...

...There is plenty of civil-rights abuse in the South, and it will not take a Sherlock Holmes to find it...

...In these positions, they exerted great influence over the legislative fate of Truman's "Fair Deal...

...Here, however, Southern Democratic members may well be guided by their memories of the events which followed the Dixiecrat revolt of 1948...

...Truman found himself in a similar situation in 1948 as the Republican 80th Congress ran roughshod over his legislative program...

...Southern editorial writers continue to feed the flames of political revolt...

...They have all realized that their candidates could not hope to win a Presidential election for several reasons: They have lacked an effective, nationwide party organization...

...Northern Democratic hopes for capitalizing on the Dixiecrat revolt were quickly dashed when Democratic National Chairman J. Howard McGrath announced that "the great bulk of those who supported the States' Rights ticket had understandable motives" and that it would not foreclose their return to the party...

...The Commission is, after all, an Eisenhower-Republican creation, and any significant gains it records will be Republican campaign ammunition for 1958 and 1960...