Profile in black and white

[5] George B. Tindall, South Carolina Negroes 1877-1900, (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1952), pp. 291-293.

[6] Ibid., pp. 54, 59, 73, 89, and 91. See also Tindall, “The Campaign for the Disfranchisement of Negroes in South Carolina,” Journal of Southern History, XV (May 1949), 212-34.

[7] Tindall, South Carolina Negroes 1877-1900, p. 303. See also Tindall, “The Question of Race in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1895,” Journal of Negro History, XXXVII (July 1952), 277-303.

[8] In 1905 the Charleston News and Courier was sued by a white man whom the News and Courier had referred to in a news story as a Negro. In awarding damages to the plaintiff the court held that “when we think of the radical distinction subsisting between the white man and the black man, it must be apparent that to impute the condition of the Negro to a white man would affect his (the white man’s) social status, and, in case anyone publish a white man to be a Negro, it would not only be galling to his pride, but would tend to interfere seriously with the social relation of the white man with his fellow white men.” Gilbert T. Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, (New York: Association Press, 1911), p. 28.

[9] Quoted in Tindall, South Carolina Negroes 1877-1900, p. 238.

[10] Full inaugural address quoted in Lewis K. McMillan, Negro Higher Education in the State of South Carolina, (Privately published, 1952), pp. 249-251.

[11] Gustavus M. Pinckney (ed.), Carlyle McKinley, An Appeal to Pharaoh: The Negro Problem and its Radical Solution, (Columbia: The State Co., 1907), p. 107.

[12] Anthony Harrigan (ed.), The Editor and the Republic: Papers and Addresses of William Watts Ball (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1954), pp. 30, 72.

[13] New York Times, Mar. 1, 1944, p. 13. The Negro Citizens Committee of South Carolina condemned this resolution as “astonishing to the Negroes of South Carolina.”

[14] Ibid., Mar. 1, 1944, p. 13. Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith congratulated the House for its passage of this resolution, saying, “We are damned tired of these butterfly preachers who do not know conditions in the South.” Ibid., Mar. 2, 1944, p. 34.

[15] In 1932 the Chairman of the Columbia Board of Election Commissioners ruled that Negroes were excluded from voting in primary elections unless they had voted for Wade Hampton for governor in 1876 and presented ten witnesses to substantiate it. Ibid., Apr. 21, 1932, p. 24.

[16] “Why South Carolina Keeps the Poll Tax,” Christian Century, LXIII (Feb. 6, 1946), 166. The author of this article considered the above quote evidence that “the real issue is not race,” but that race was only a “smoke screen” which “a little oligarchy” used to maintain control of the state through the one-party system. However, it is the opinion of informed observers that although the “little oligarchy” does exercise more effective control through a one-party system, the real issue is race. The one party system is simply the most effective method of political control by whites.

[17] New York Times, Dec. 5, 1952, p. 14.

[18] Independent, Aug. 28, 1956, p. 2.

[19] See George S. Parthemos, The Supreme Court and the Rights of Negroes Under the Reconstruction Amendments, (Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina, 1949), Chapter VII.

[20] New York Times, Apr. 14, 1944, p. 1.

[21] Quoted in To Secure These Rights, Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947), p. 36.

[22] Parthemos, op. cit., p. 191.

[23] Judge Waring is one of the most interesting personalities encountered in the study of the race issue in South Carolina. Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith’s campaign manager in 1938, he was representative of the most “respectable” elements of Charleston society, was “a descendant of Confederates,” and had the support of the most orthodox of white supremacists when he was made a federal judge by President Roosevelt. After his decisions outlawing the white primary (and also after his divorce and remarriage to an “outsider” with “radical” views on the race question) he was completely ostracized by white Charleston and South Carolina society. He and his wife became complete integrationists. “The Southern advocates of white supremacy,” he said, “are mentally sick.” “We don’t have a Negro problem in the South, we have a white problem.” New York Times, Feb. 27, 1950, p. 17. See also “Judge Waring on the Civil Rights Issue,” Nation, CLXXIV (June 7, 1952), 540-541. For Mrs. Waring’s views see “Mrs. Waring Meets the Press,” American Mercury, LXX (May 1950), 562-569.

[24] To Secure These Rights, p. 36.

[25] Parthemos, op. cit., pp. 192-195.

[26] Ibid., pp. 194-195.

[27] New York Times, Apr. 20, 1948, p. 1.

[28] Ibid., July 28, 1948, p. 5.

[29] Ibid., Aug. 23, 1938, p. 5.

[30] Cassandra M. Birnie, “Race and Politics in Georgia and South Carolina,” Phylon, XIII (Sept., 1952), 241.

[31] David D. Wallace, South Carolina: A Short History, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1951), p. 679.

[32] New York Times, July 8, 1950, p. 14.

[33] Ibid., Feb. 29, 1948, p. 9; July 17, 1948, p. 3; Oct. 3, 1948, p. 40; Feb. 24, 1949, p. 15.

[34] Ibid., Feb. 7, 1952, p. 21.

[35] Other considerations, of course, entered into the revolt. Economic factors were important, for example, in the opposition of Southern financial and industrial interests to Truman’s proposal for repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, which contained provisions for state right-to-work laws. Other economic interests, e.g. oil interests, also supported the movement. Nevertheless the revolt was sold to the rank and file white South Carolinians on the grounds of race and they undoubtedly thought, this was the main consideration.

[36] New York Times, July 20, 1948, p. 1; Oct. 3, 1948, p. 40.

[37] Ibid., Aug. 1, 1948, p. 44; Aug. 12, 1948, p. 44.

[38] Ibid., Dec. 5, 1952, p. 14.

[39] Tindall, South Carolina Negroes 1877-1900, p. 222.

[40] Simkins, “Race Legislation in South Carolina since 1865,” South Atlantic Quarterly, XX (June 1921), 170.

[41] Quoted in McMillan, op. cit., pp. 257-58. Gov. Blease also wanted to secure as texts for the public schools “books, especially histories [written] by Southern authors for Southern children.”

[42] Grace Graham, “Negro Education Progresses in South Carolina,” Social Forces, XXX (May 1952), 431-432.

[43] Figures quoted below were taken from Harry S. Ashmore, The Negro and the Schools, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1954), pp. 152-53, 156-59.

[44] Ibid., pp. 115, 147, 160, 166.

[45] McMillan, op. cit., p. 219.

[46] Ibid., pp. 268, 199, 207, 211.

[47] Ibid., pp. 211-212.

[48] Parthemos, op. cit., pp. 94-96.

[49] New York Times, June 3, 1951, Section IV, p. 7.

[50] Julian Scheer, “The White Folks Fight Back,” Nation, CLXXXI (Oct. 31, 1955), 10.

[51] New York Times, June 3, 1951, Section IV, p. 7.

[52] Scheer, loc. cit., p. 10. For a competent account of the Clarendon situation see John Bartlow Martin, The Deep South Says Never (New York: Ballantine Books, 1957), pp. 43-77.

[53] News and Courier, May 18, 1954, p. 11.

[54] New York Times, May 29, 1951, p. 27; May 30, 1951, p. 12.

[55] Walter White, How Far the Promised Land, (New York: Viking Press, 1952), p. 47.

[56] New York Times, May 29, 1951, p. 27.

[57] Ibid., May 30, 1951, p. 12; News and Courier, May 18, 1954, p. 11.

[58] “Human Rights are Now,” Nation, CLXXIII (July 14, 1951), 24; New York Times, June 24, 1951, p. 72.

[59] New York Times, June 26, 1951, p. 40.

[60] Ibid., Mar. 19, 1951, p. 18; June 25, 1951, p. 19; July 10, 1951, p. 21; also Ashmore, op. cit., p. 96.

[61] New York Times, Dec. 11, 1952, p. 44.

[62] Ibid., May 27, 1951, p. 40.

[63] Howard G. McClain and Henry G. Ruark, “Education or Segregation?” Christian Century, LXX (Apr. 1, 1953), 378.

[64] First interim report of the Gressette Committee, July 28, 1954, quoted in S. C. Senate Journal (1955), p. 14; also News and Courier, June 16, 1954, p. 1.

[65] McClain and Ruark, loc. cit., p. 377; also New York Times, Mar. 14, 1952, p. 16.

[66] New York Times, Dec. 11, 1952, p. 44.

[67] Supreme Court of the United States, “Brief of Appellees on Reargument,” Case of Harry Briggs, Jr., et al., Appellants, against R. W. Elliott, el al., Appellees, October Term 1953, pp. 1-2.

[68] For full reply of the state to the question see ibid., pp. 8-83; see also p. 84.

[69] Full text of the Court’s opinion is quoted in Appendix I.

[70] News and Courier, Sept. 16, 1954, p. 1.

[71] Record, Nov. 15, 1954, p. 1.

[72] Full text of the implementing decision is quoted in New York Times, June 1, 1955, p. 26.

[73] Morning News, July 16, 1955, p. 1.

[74] Morning News, May 18, 1954, p. 1; May 20, 1954, p. 5-A; Mar. 2, 1956, p. 10-A.

[75] Ibid., Dec. 16, 1955, p. 1.

[76] Record, Jan. 24, 1957, p. 7-A.

[77] Independent, May 18, 1954, p. 1.

[78] News and Courier, May 18, 1954, p. 1; May 19, 1954, p. 4; May 21, 1954, p. 4-A; May 26, 1954, p. 4-A; Nov. 23, 1954, p. 14-A.

[79] Record, May 18, 1954, p. 4-A; May 19, 1954, p. 4-A; May 22, 1954, p. 4-A; May 26, 1954, p. 4-A; Nov. 23, 1954, p. 4-A.

[80] Independent, May 18, 1954, p. 4; May 25, 1954, p. 4; Dec. 1, 1954, p. 4.

[81] Morning News, May 18, 1954, p. 4; May 19, 1954, p. 4; Apr. 16, 1955, p. 4.

[82] News and Courier, May 28, 1954, p. 8-A.

[83] Independent, June 9, 1954, p. 8A [Italics mine].

[84] News and Courier, May 21, 1954, p. 10-A; May 24, 1954, p. 2.

[85] Record, June 20, 1955, p. 1; Independent, June 28, 1955, p. 1.

[86] Record, June 1, 1955, p. 4-A; Morning News, June 1, 1955, p. 4; Independent, June 2, 1955, p. 4; News and Courier, June 4, 1955, p. 6-A.

[87] Morning News, June 1, 1955, p. 1.

[88] Record, Jan. 27, 1956, p. 1; Mar. 23, 1956, p. 8-A; Independent, Aug. 13, 1956, p. 3; Mar. 8, 1956, p. 20.

[89] News and Courier, May 24, 1956, p. 12-A; May 25, 1955, p. 10-A; Nov. 25, 1954, p. 8-A; Nov. 13, 1954, p. 4-A; Dec. 5, 1954, p. 14-A.

[90] Record, Oct. 28, 1955, p. 4-A; Apr. 27, 1955, p. 4-A.

[91] Independent, Dec. 1, 1955, p. 4.

[92] State, June 27, 1957, p. 4; July 5, 1957, p. 4.

[93] Record, June 26, 1957; State, July 16, 1957, p. 4.

[94] James F. Byrnes, “The Supreme Court Must be Curbed,” U.S. News and World Report, XL (May 18, 1956), 50-58.

[95] News and Courier, Aug. 19, 1955, p. 10-A.

[96] State, Aug. 21, 1955.

[97] News and Courier, July 17, 1955, p. 9-A; Oct. 30, 1955, p. 1-E; Record, May 29, 1956, p. 4-A.

[98] News and Courier, Oct. 7, 1954, p. 4-A.

[99] Ibid., Aug. 1, 1955, p. 7-A.

[100] To Secure these Rights, Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights pp. 81-82.

[101] Thomas R. Waring, “The Southern Case against Desegregation,” Harper’s, CCXII (Jan. 1956), 39-45.

[102] Herbert R. Sass, “Mixed Schools and Mixed Blood,” Atlantic Monthly, CXCVIII, (Nov. 1956), 45-49.

[103] Oscar Handlin, “Where Equality Leads,” ibid., pp. 50-54.

[104] News and Courier, Sept. 14, 1956, p. 12-A; Apr. 28, 1955, p. 16-A; Nov. 17, 1954, p. 10-A.

[105] Record, Sept. 23, 1954, p. 4-A; Oct. 2, 1956, p. 4-A.

[106] Morning News, May 13, 1954, p. 4-A; Aug. 11, 1954, p. 4; Aug. 5, 1956, p. 4-A; Aug. 30, 1956, p. 4-A; Sept. 1, 1956, p. 4.

[107] Ibid., Jan. 19, 1955, p. 1; Apr. 7, 1956, p. 5; Record, Oct. 5, 1956, p. 1.

[108] Morning News, Sept. 2, 1955, p. 4-A.

[109] News and Courier, Sept. 5, 1954, p. 8-A.

[110] Record, Nov. 22, 1955, p. 4-A; News and Courier, July 20, 1955, p. 1-B.

[111] News and Courier, Mar. 15, 1956, p. 2-B; May 15, 1956, p. 1-B; Dec. 16, 1956, p. 8-C.

[112] Morning News, Sept. 2, 1954, p. 3-A; News and Courier, Aug. 14, 1955, p. 12-A.

[113] Morning News, Sept. 23, 1956, p. 4-A; also James F. Byrnes, “The Supreme Court Must be Curbed,” U.S. News and World Report, XL (May 18, 1956), 58; News and Courier, June 6, 1954, p. 4-A.

[114] News and Courier, Aug. 28, 1955, p. 10-A.

[115] Ibid., April 28, 1956, p. 1; June 27, 1955, p. 6-A; July 2, 1955, p. 6-A.

[116] Ibid., Dec. 3, 1954, p. 10-A.

[117] Record, Nov. 26, 1954, p. 1.

[118] Ibid., May 31, 1954, p. 4-A; June 17, 1955, p. 4-A; July 11, 1955, p. 4-A; Oct. 12, 1956, p. 4-A.

[119] Independent, Dec. 1, 1954, p. 4.

[120] Morning News, Aug. 5, 1955, p. 1; News and Courier, Aug. 24, 1955, p. 10-A; Aug. 31, 1956, p. 18-A.

[121] News and Courier, July 19, 1955, p. 1-B.

[122] Record, Dec. 29, 1955, p. 3-B.

[123] Ibid., Oct. 17, 1957, p. 10-A; State, Oct. 18, 1957, p. 2-B.

[124] News and Courier, Jan. 15, 1957, p. 1.

[125] State, June 25, 1957, p. 1.

[126] News and Courier, Sept. 21, 1956, p. 1-B.

[127] According to a News and Courier reporter, Eldridge Thompson, Klan membership rocketed during 1956 and 1957. In addition to Bickley’s organization the other principal Klan groups are the Association of South Carolina Klans with headquarters in West Columbia and the National Ku Klux Klan of South Carolina which operates out of Greenville. Ibid., Oct. 27, 1957, p. 12-A.

[128] Morning News, Aug. 21, 1955, p. 1

[129] Ibid., June 12, 1955, p. 1.

[130] Ibid., Mar. 25, 1956, p. 1; July 29, 1956, p. 1.

[131] News and Courier, Aug. 20, 1956, p. 2.

[132] Morning News, July 29, 1956, p. 1.

[133] State, July 26, 1957, p. 2-D; Aug. 5, 1957, p. 5-A; Aug. 10, 1957, p. 1-B; Jan. 15, 1958, p. 1-B; Jan. 21, 1958, p. 1-B; Jan. 22, 1958, p. 1; Record, Aug. 3, 1957, p. 1; Aug. 9, 1957, p. 1; Jan. 15, 1958, p. 8-A; Jan. 22, 1958, p. 1; Jan. 23, 1958, p. 1.

[134] Morning News, July 1, 1956, p. 4-A; Independent, Jan. 27, 1956, p. 4; News and Courier, June 11, 1954, p. 4-A; June 17, 1954, p. 12-A.

[135] Independent, Feb. 3, 1956, p. 4.

[136] Morning News, Aug. 23, 1955, p. 1.

[137] News and Courier, Aug. 30, 1955, p. 8-A.

[138] Ibid., Aug. 1, 1957, p. 8-A.

[139] Morning News, July 16, 1954, p. 1.

[140] Ibid., July 21, 1954, p. 1; July 17, 1954, p. 4.

[141] Ibid., Aug. 6, 1954, p. 4; News and Courier, Oct. 8, 1954, p. 4-A.

[142] Morning News, Mar. 11, 1955, p. 1.

[143] News and Courier, Feb. 4, 1955, p. 11-A.

[144] Morning News, Mar. 22, 1955, p. 4; June 11, 1955, p. 1; Aug. 19, 1955, p. 4-A.

[145] Ibid., Aug. 12, 1955, p. 9-A; June 17, 1955, p. 1.

[146] News and Courier, July 8, 1955, p. 10-A.

[147] Ibid., Aug. 13, 1955, p. 8-A.

[147] Ibid., July 1, 1955, p. 14-A; Feb. 10, 1957, p. 13-A.

[149] Ibid., Sept. 9, 1955, p. 14-A.

[150] Record, Dec. 29, 1955, p. 1; News and Courier, Dec. 31, 1955, p. 6-A.

[151] News and Courier, May 26, 1955, p. 14-A; Mar. 18, 1956, p. 2-C; Oct. 4, 1955, p. 8-A.

[152] Ibid., Sept. 15, 1955, p. 1; Sept. 16, 1955, p. 1; Sept. 17, 1955, p. 1.

[153] S. C. Senate Journal (1956), pp. 248-249.

[154] Morning News, Feb. 11, 1956, p. 7.

[155] News and Courier, Sept. 23, 1955, p. 10-A.

[156] Record, Sept. 6, 1955, p. 1.

[157] News and Courier, July 1, 1956, p. 14-C. By this date there were councils in the counties of Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Beaufort, Calhoun (2), Charleston (6), Clarendon (3), Darlington (4), Dorchester (2), Fairfield, Florence (7), Georgetown, Jasper, Kershaw, Lee (2), Lexington, Orangeburg (9), Richland (2), Spartanburg, Sumter and Williamsburg (7).

[158] By February 1957 there were 58 local councils in South Carolina. By this time leadership in the state organization had changed. Thomas D. Keels of Sumter was state chairman, Dr. W. M. Croswell of Timmonsville, vice-chairman and H. L. Bowling of Elloree, treasurer. News and Courier, Jan. 18, 1957, p. 1-B; Feb. 15, 1957, p. 10-A.

[159] Ibid., July 1, 1956, p. 14-C.

[160] Ibid., Feb. 24, 1957, p. 2-A.

[161] Ibid., Mar. 4, 1957, p. 12.

[162] Morning News, Aug. 30, 1955, p. 1.

[163] News and Courier, July 1, 1956, p. 14-C; Jan. 9, 1956, p. 12.

[164] Ibid., May 6, 1956, p. 1.

[165] Ibid., May 27, 1956, p. 14-A.

[166] Record, Jan. 27, 1956, p. 1. Another indication of the support given the Council was the resolution unanimously adopted by the state legislature commending the formation of the Councils and offering the legislators’ “approval and encouragement” to the movement.

[167] News and Courier, Aug. 31, 1955, p. 10-A; Oct. 6, 1955, p. 6-A.

[168] Morning News, Aug. 16, 1955, p. 12.

[169] Ibid., Aug. 28, 1955, p. 1.

[170] Record, Feb. 11, 1956, p. 1.

[171] News and Courier, Oct. 10, 1955, p. 1.

[172] Morning News, Aug. 17, 1955, p. 12; Aug. 21, 1955, p. 3-A.

[173] This summary of the Orangeburg boycott was taken largely from Edward Gamarekian, “The Ugly Battle of Orangeburg,” Reporter, XVI (Jan. 24, 1957), 32-34, and an article written by W. D. Workman, Jr., in the News and Courier, Dec. 3, 1955, p. 1-E; see also Record, Apr. 13, 1956, p. 2-A.

[174] Gamarekian, loc. cit., pp. 32-34.

[175] Morning News, Jan. 25, 1956, p. 7; S. C. House Journal (1956), p. 101.

[176] Record, Mar. 26, 1956, p. 1.

[177] Ibid., Apr. 7, 1956, p. 1.

[178] Morning News, July 18, 1956, p. 6.

[179] Gamarekian, loc. cit., pp. 32-34.

[180] Record, Aug. 25, 1955, p. 4-A.

[181] News and Courier, Aug. 31, 1955, p. 10-A.

[182] Ibid., Aug. 24, 1955, p. 10-A.