HUCKSTERS OF HATE
Burgess, David S.
Hucksters of Hate By David S. Burgess CURRENT disclosures regarding the sordid falsifications used to defeat Sen. Millard Tydings in Maryland last fall may shock Americans who are unfamiliar with...
...Consequently, most voters of the Tar Heel state marked their ballots blindly, without knowledge of the basic issues...
...Smith hammered this charge hard in an Ashe-ville speech...
...Negroes eating beside you in public eating places...
...Negroes sleeping in the same hotels and rooming houses...
...First, they attempted to arouse the business community to the threat of "creeping socialism," supposedly conceived by Truman and backed by Graham...
...Even the liberals of the South, bitter and dazed by defeat, are not too sure what happened, and certainly the true story has not appeared north of the Mason-Dixon Line...
...He refused to use his opponent's tactics...
...Here are some samples: There is no minority report . . . Graham never flatly opposed FEPC...
...The high-mindedness of Graham and appeals to decency on the part of his many admirers did not catch the imagination of a majority of voters...
...Not until 1950, however, did * See Page 4 for an analysis of the Maryland story...
...In such a dilemma in a racially-bigoted state, Graham and his supporters had only one way to counteract the race smears—to attack Willis Smith and the economic interests behind him...
...Beyond these two cases, the Graham headquarters did not go...
...Their professionalized propaganda appeared again in 1948, when J. Strom Thurmond attempted to mix tidelands oil and white supremacy in the kettle of states rights...
...Against the torrent of racial charges, however, he had no adequate defense...
...The most effective attempt to prove that Negroes were committed to Graham en masse was in the form of a postal card mailed from New York to thousands of white citizens in North Carolina...
...To repeat that he was against a compulsory FEPC law was not convincing to the average prejudiced white man who knew that Graham had been the Negro's friend for years and had fought for greater educational opportunities for them, for job opportunities, and for their political rights...
...This Graham refused to do...
...He served the church for four years in the South, then joined the staff of the CIO Textile Workers' Union...
...Here they struck pay dirt—enough to carry Smith to final victory...
...No other Southern Senator has ever appointed a Negro to West Point...
...Frank Graham favors mingling of the races...
...He upholds the traditions of the South...
...In addition, the Graham backers publicized the fact that Smith, while acting as a receiver for the Madix Asphalt Roofing Co., had collected over $23,000 for "fees and expenses" during a 90-day period...
...Not knowing the relative meaning of the word alternate, the average reader supposed that Leroy Jones had actually entered West Point—by the act of Sen...
...II Business and professional groups were called to battle...
...In the South, when white voters are aroused against their Negro neighbors, a big vote is usually a reactionary one...
...To date, labor's efforts have been ineffective, judged by the standards of ward and precinct organization...
...Smith claimed that Graham had signed the majority report...
...Having pictured Graham as an opponent of the accepted forms of white supremacy, the Smith headquarters next proceeded to claim that he had actually shown partiality toward the Negroes...
...Graham emphasized a conviction he had long expressed: "Federal compulsion for the elimination of segregation and discrimination in employment would cause a set-back in the gradual but clear progress here...
...A pamphlet was issued outlining Graham's record of public service and his opposition to all forms of totalitarianism, including Communism— over the years...
...In another leaflet, the picture of the 1867 South Carolina Legislature appeared...
...W. Wite, Executive Secretary National Society for the Advancement of Colored People The fact that most Negroes did vote for Graham in the first primary —which Graham led by a 53,000 majority—added fuel to the Smith charges about a Negro plot against the white majority...
...A candidate who is victimized by racial smears has only one weapon with which to defend himself—the affirmative economic appeal to the less fortunate voters...
...But to no avail...
...Racism overpowered reason, and consequently, after giving Graham a 53,000 majority in the first primary over Reynolds and Smith, the voters rejected Graham in the second primary by an 18,775 margin and sent the reactionary Willis Smith to the U. S. Senate...
...Unsigned leaflets from the "Know the Truth Committee" began appearing in eastern North Carolina, headed "WHITE PEOPLE: WAKE UP...
...His headquarters, in contrast, did attack Smith's opposition to a state 40-cent minimum wage in 1947...
...He kept repeating the charge even after Graham had denied it by citing the fact that he had signed instead a minority report recommending a voluntary rather than a compulsory FEPC law...
...and lastly, and most important of all, they sought to resurrect the Negro issue for the first time in the past 50 years of Tar Heel history...
...The Senator's name was later linked with that of Roger Baldwin, then head of the American Civil Liberties Union, who was labeled an "IWW member, an atheist, and a Communist...
...Republican Rep...
...While the paid agents of manufacturers, real estate men, doctors, and bankers were circulating rumors about Graham's alleged radicalism in regard to rent control, public housing, Taft-Hartley, and civil rights, Smith never descended from the clouds of generalizations long enough to attack Graham's votes on any specific non-racial domestic issue...
...Yet even the Smathers and the Smiths know that the South's future rests with labor and liberalism...
...He charged that Graham had joined 18 separate groups which had been labeled "subversive" by ex-Atty...
...Newspaper advertisements for Smith began appearing in the papers with all types of statements about Graham and FEPC, many of which were shameless lies...
...They just couldn't swallow the story of the kindly educator as a dangerous operator in Red circles...
...Smith had called the law "harsh and unreasonable" and had warned that "it would wreck the economy of the state...
...At the same time, his attempt to reply to all the attacks would force many citizens to remark to themselves "He doth protest too much...
...Gwinn of New York mailed out John T. Flynn's The Road Ahead, featuring attacks on Dr...
...New York 18, N. Y. Dear Voter: Your vote and active support of Sen...
...Graham, and that he was appointed ahead of a higher-ranking white...
...Smith's publicists, sensing public reaction, switched quickly to Step Number 3 of their master plan— the racial attack on Graham...
...Yet the organization name was incorrect, the name of the Executive Secretary incorrectly spelled, the address inaccurate...
...Soon the publicists and campaign managers for Smith were using this money to put into effect, as they had in other Southern states, a three-point master plan...
...Smith declared shortly after the first primary: "The votes of our Negro, voters offer an inviting field for a certain type of politician who has been known in the South since an earlier generation . . . [The Negro vote for Graham] was an example of bloc voting of the most iniquitous type...
...In fact, Graham publicly denounced a leaflet being circulated among workers in his behalf, and his headquarters failed to circulate another leaflet exposing Smith's financial deals...
...Do you wantg Negroes working beside you, your wife and daughters in your mills and factories...
...Negroes using your toilet facilities...
...Men like Graham of North Carolina, Sims of South Carolina, and Pepper of Florida fell before a barrage of racial propaganda which destroyed reason and substituted blind prejudice in the minds of many voters...
...It was in North Carolina, the state which had prided itself on its amicable race relations, that the hucksters of hate had their greatest success...
...planned racism reach floodtide in the South...
...In one picture Moorish men were dancing with British girls, and the caption asked, "Will This Happen Here...
...This act showed, the Smith agents claimed, that Graham was attempting to break down segregation in the South...
...Second, they sought to cast doubt upon the loyalty of Grar-ham by associating him with subversive groups...
...Citizens vote their hatreds and fears—not their positive beliefs...
...Yet his anti-New Deal opponents from the American Medical Association and business circles cagily attacked him mainly on the race issue, charging that his support of more democratic House rules demonstrated his backing of the civil rights program...
...Graham appealed to idealism, but he seldom descended to the bread-and-butter issues or cared to expose the true nature of his reactionary opposition...
...III At the same time, Smith spearheaded the campaign to picture Graham as a fellow traveler or at best a dupe for subversive organizations...
...He remained instead in the ideological stratosphere by attacking Statism, Regimentation, Socialism, and the like...
...The defeat proved, above all, that race prejudice was much more deep-seated in Southern society than most Americans had suspected...
...Similar was the fate of the defeated liberal Congressman of South Carolina, Hugo Sims...
...Advertisements heralded Smith's "35 years of business experience" as contrasted with Graham's record of "always on the public payroll...
...I do not know what sort of a deal the Graham supporters had with the Negro leaders of North Carolina, but it certainly seems, whatever the understanding, the raising of the race issue by my opponent produced results for Dr...
...Negroes teaching and disciplining your children in school...
...The target of their vituperation was Frank Graham, the modest, lovable, ex-president of the University of North Carolina who had been appointed to the Senate by liberal Gov...
...Certain farm leaders declared that Graham supported the hated Brannan Plan...
...A white boy from Fayetteville placed first and was given the appointment, Jones was named second alternate by Graham...
...with certain questions about FEPC...
...The professional publicists of racism can be defeated by truth, education, solid organization—but most of all by the fighting faith in freedom of those who labor daily for a better South...
...Of course, the Graham headquarters attempted to refute the calculated smear of their candidate...
...Under these circumstances, contrary to the general political rule in other regions of the nation, a big vote was not necessarily a liberal one...
...Fundamentally, the whites of North Carolina responded to the racial attacks on Graham, not because of innate sinfulness, but because they had in their hearts the hatred and suspicion of the Negro which are the inevitable ingredients of a segregated society, and because they were responding in a period of universal confusion and frustration...
...Here the case of Leroy Jones was used...
...Reports from certain counties with Republican majorities in the past, in a state which gave Dewey 258,-572 votes in 1948, indicate that a sizable number of Republicans registered Democratic in 1950 in order to vote for Smith in the Democratic primary...
...Their slick racial sheets were first seen in Texas in the 1946 campaign against Homer Rainey...
...The Congressman, now an active captain in the 82nd Airborne Division, was badly beaten as a result of these racial attacks...
...Though Graham captured 32 eastern counties in the first race, he was only able to win eight in the run-off election...
...The card read: 30 W. 40th St...
...To the unsophis-ticated, the card seemed to come from the head office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York...
...Unfortunately, Graham overestimated the extent of public knowledge...
...enemies, and owned a long record of selfless effort to uplift the South, he still had certain political liabilities —a record of friendship to Negro and labor groups, past membership in certain radical organizations, a liberal voting record in the Senate, and belief in the goodness of men...
...The Smith backers made these errors intentionally to avoid libel suits...
...IV In the meantime, the racial campaign was fortified by a mass of dirty racial literature which began to flood the state...
...Smith led off by reminding the public that Dr...
...First, Sen...
...Smith's big-business connections were not exposed, nor was the public informed about the economic groups who were paying the high cost for the most vicious, mendacious campaign in the state's history...
...Willis Smith was able to shield from public gaze the Republicans and corporation executives who were actually paying the campaign freight...
...FEPC] originated with the Communists in 1928 when it was adopted by the Communist Party Convention . . . [Under FEPC] soon there will be Negro foremen over white people...
...Scott in 1949...
...This Negro high school youth had placed third in a competitive examination to West Point conducted by the U. S. Civil Service Commission...
...Furthermore, the candidate faced a dilemma...
...Smith's supporters circulated a pamphlet implying that Frank Graham had taught at Moscow...
...Graham...
...He must prove that he has a positive program for the welfare of all working people, and that the racial attacks of the opposition are merely a calculated attempt on the part of selfish corporate interests to blind the public to the real issues and to whip up racial passions for their own greedy advantage...
...The Negro is a useful, tax-paying citizen...
...Manufacturers reminded their colleagues of the Senator's votes against the Taft-Hartley Law...
...Graham...
...Willis Smith for Senator...
...In the Democratic primaries of 1950, Graham was opposed by Bob Reynolds, the loud, dissipated, alien-hating former Senator, and by Willis Smith, corporation lawyer, mill-owner, and business lobbyist...
...The son of China missionary parents, he was graduated from Union Theological Seminary and ordained in the Congregational-Christian Church...
...Though he had supported President Truman on most domestic legislation in the 81st Congress, this young Representative had been a vigorous opponent of all civil rights legislation...
...Graham had been a member of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, which in 1947 had recommended FEPC legislation, anti-lynching measures, and other proposals for assuring enforcement of the Constitution...
...But somehow all of the efforts to discredit Graham by linking him with the Kremlin as a "poor security risk" never jelled...
...That base can be found partly in the labor movement...
...Liberalism in the South was not beaten primarily by the home-grown hucksters of racism—the Bilbos, Rankins, Talmadges...
...Graham was no politician...
...Claude Pepper of Florida was attacked in little hate sheets as both a "Red" and a "nigger-lover...
...Although he was admired by many, was respected even by his DAVID S. BURGESS has worked and lectured widely in the South, both as minister and labor organizer...
...Frank" has done much to advance the place of the Negro in North Carolina...
...The average voter was confused by the propaganda about Dr...
...Of the 63 members, only 13 were white...
...He believed that his lifetime of service to the state and nation somehow spoke for itself to the farmer, the shopkeeper, the worker...
...Behind Smith was the big money...
...The election was decided by a switch of voters in the agricultural black-belt section of eastern North Carolina, where racism had its heyday...
...Tom Clark...
...His avoidance of the race issue would be interpreted by some citizens as proof of Smith's charges...
...Graham's past as a confidant of the Kremlin...
...At the same time, the Smith headquarters tried to prove that the Negroes were organizing a plot to re-elect Graham against the will of a majority of whites...
...Finally, the defeat of Graham, like that of Sims and Pepper, proves that liberalism can seldom win in the South without a mass base among working people...
...And the natural question was asked, "Will history repeat itself...
...Liberals of the South have a distant goal, but in the immediate future we face a long, up-hill struggle against great odds...
...For the most part, the story is too little known...
...You know, just as we do, that "Dr...
...Despite the crippling effects of the Taft-Hartley Act, the labor organizations of the South have been practically the only groups in recent Dixie campaigns which have attempted to inform the public about the nature of the calculated racial attacks and about the voting records of proven liberals and proven reactionaries...
...Still a minister, too, he preaches throughout the South and serves on the Council for Social Action of the Congregational Church...
...They are always with us...
...The liberals of the South took a frightful drubbing during the past year...
...Certain doctors claimed, without a shred of supporting evidence, that Graham stood for "socialized medicine...
...Even the hateful memory of Reconstruction was revived to haunt the whites of the state...
...Florida would soon be under black rule if Pepper won—so said the publicity agents handling the DuPont account for the victorious Smathers...
...The picture of Leroy Jones was therefore circulated throughtout the state with this caption: "Frank Graham appointed him to West Point as an alternate...
...Idealistic appeals are practically useless...
...Frank Graham in the North Carolina Primary May 27th will be greatly appreciated...
...Millard Tydings in Maryland last fall may shock Americans who are unfamiliar with the new corruption of our politics.* But to countless Southerners, especially in North Carolina, the Maryland story is only a new chapter in the dismal story of the debasement of our political practices...
...if Graham is elected...
...Graham himself repudiated the Brannan Plan and the President's health insurance program, and he spoke cautiously on controversial domestic issues...
...The Graham defeat proves furthermore that prejudiced white voters cannot be converted to reasonableness on race questions during the heat of a political campaign...
...Eventually, Republicans came to the aid of the business interests and Willis Smith...
...Instead, we were whipped by the powerful economic interests of America—textile, oil, power, tobacco—whose crafty publicists, using unlimited cash, spread the virus of race hate to distort facts, awaken latent fears, and corrupt the public mind...
...Negroes riding beside you, your wife and your daughters in busses, cabs and trains...
...To the liberals of the South, the defeat was a bitter pill, but it taught them valuable lessons for the future...
Vol. 15 • February 1951 • No. 2
