KEEPING NEGROES IN THEIR PLACE

As Some Pro-Segregationists See It:

The Southern Way of Life?

by Ben Price (AP Newsfeature Writer)

The Charlotte Observer

(December 12, 1956)

            Charleston S.C.--(AP)--The South, from Virginia to Texas, focuses much of its thinking on what has come to be called "the Southern way of life."

            This insistence on a particular way of life sometimes puzzles the rest of the nation. Boiled down it appear to amount to this:

            The white man in the South, who governs the area, owns its biggest farms, runs its biggest banks and businesses, is torn between his often very genuine affection for the Negro as an individual and his belief that Negroes, as a race, should "keep their place."

            In effect, this often amounts to political, economic and social subordination for the Negro. The white man explains he believes this is the only way the two races can live together harmoniously.

            To some, Southerners express concern that if the Negro is "allowed to mix," the result could be racial mongrelization. There is fear too that in some areas which are predominantly Negro in population, the Negroes could gain political control and take over governments.

            The southern white man has a long history of defending his relationship with the Negro, first as a slave owner and after the Civil War as a "white supremacist."

            By and large he is convinced that no one outside the South really understands--or can understand--this position.

            In defending their way of life southerners have re-developed the doctrine of states' rights to protect white supremacy. It holds that the internal affairs of a state, including segregation and voting, should be left to the state and not be subject to federal interference of any sort.

            In no other region since the Civil war have state governments taken such steps to circumvent a high court ruling as did the Southern states in the aftermath of the May 17, 1954 Supreme Court decision holding segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

            Seven states--Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana--have said in essence they will not abide by that decision.

*   *   *   *   *

posted 24 July 2008