(Note: these learning modules encompass the
actual class lectures, and are designed for those students who have to miss
class through no fault of their own, and also as a refresher for all students.
Bold print in the notes are what the professor writes on the board.)
We start
our study of each of the southern states by examining South Carolina, a Deep
South state, but the one Deep South state where Republicans made some important
early gains. South Carolina was such an Old South state that it was one of the
only four states in the nation that voted for the States’ Rights Party in 1948
(their Democratic governor, Strom Thurmond, was its presidential nominee). It
also was one of the five Deep South states that voted for Barry Goldwater in
1964. Yet it broke with the other Deep South states in 1968 by voting for
Republican Richard Nixon instead of Third-Party candidate and segregationist
Alabama governor George Wallace. That is because Senator Strom Thurmond had
switched to the Republican Party in 1964, and he supported Nixon four years
later. So, we’re going to spend a lot of time learning about Strom Thurmond,
and this information will make a great question for the first test. Also, we
want to give you the full picture of what some prominent segregationists were
really like, so we can understand why so many whites voted for them. The
picture is often more complex than the opinionated people you see on cable TV
channels. We’re going to split Thurmond’s political career into three major
eras- his political life as a Democrat, why he switched parties and how he won
his first reelection as a Republican, and his reelections as a Republican since
then.
Strom Thurmond actually had good
people skills and initially governed as a progressive. He learned the
importance of pressing the flesh, and offering a good grip when shaking
hands with constituents from his father, who worked for the segregationist
governor “pitchfork” Ben Tillman. Thurmond served his country in combat
in the Army during World War 2, and won medals for bravery. Military service
used to be very important for winning elections, and the last time we had both
major party presidential candidates who had such service was in 1960 with
Kennedy and Nixon (it was also the last time that America had two presidential
candidates who were both very popular). Thurmond himself was a supporter of Franklin
D. Roosevelt, as he supported progressive economic programs. Elected
governor in 1946 as a Democrat, he backed improved worker health
programs, established kindergartens, and improved public education
facilities for African Americans. He also condemned lynching,
urged that the perpetrators be brought to justice, appointed the first woman
to the state’s Industrial Commission, and appointed the first black
to the Hospital Advisory Council. The latter appointment was used against
him in his unsuccessful 1950 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Yet Thurmond was
incensed when the federal government under President Truman and the national
Democratic party convention pushed civil rights. He viewed federal intervention
in state affairs as leading to totalitarianism and communism, and used racist
rhetoric when accepting the States’ Rights presidential nomination in 1948:
“I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that
there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break
down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our
swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches” (The Palmetto State, by
Bass and Poole, p. 104). In 1954 he was the first person ever elected to the
U.S. Senate in a write-in campaign, as he condemned the state Democratic
Party’s appointment of a political boss to a vacancy instead of holding a
primary, and promised to resign in 1956 so that a fair election could be held
with no candidate benefitting from incumbency. He did indeed resign, and
the voters elected him to the remainder of the senate term, and then to a full
term in 1960. (The only other person to win in a write-in campaign for the
Senate has been Lisa Murkowski from Alaska in 2010, after she had lost the
Republican primary election to a right-wing opponent.)
As we now turn to Thurmond’s
switch to the Republican Party in 1964, the year that the GOP nominated a
very conservative person Goldwater as their presidential candidate, you can see
how racial issues become intertwined with non-racial issues, so that there can
be complex reasons for why conservative white southerners began to switch to
the Republican Party. Thurmond blasted the 1964 Civil Rights Act which
outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations and in employment as
“the worst, most unreasonable and unconstitutional legislation that has ever
been considered,” and which he felt had been passed because of “Negro
agitators, spurred on by communist enticements to promote racial strife”
(Cohodas book, Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change, 1994, p.
351). He was further incensed by Johnson’s choice of Hubert Humphrey as Vice
President, who was the leader of the liberal ADA (Americans for Democratic
Action), a group he called “Socialist” (Cohodas book, p. 359), and also the
author of the 1948 Democratic civil rights platform plank. Thurmond blasted the Democratic Party for becoming the
party of such special interests as “minority groups, power-hungry union
leaders, political bosses, and businessmen looking for government contracts
and favors” (p. 359). He praised Goldwater for his conservative principles of “fiscal
sanity… Constitutional government,” and his opposition to the “communist
enemy” (Cohodas, p. 362). So racial issues were important in motivating
Thurmond’s switch, but so too was an opposition to a big federal government
that appeased labor union leaders and that engaged in deficit spending, as was
his opposition to communism (during the height of the Cold War). State
newspapers actually praised his party switch for showing his “courage and independence,”
and who unlike a machine politician made a “direct appeal to the people”
(Cohodas, p. 360). The party switch was indeed risky, since the Old South had
been so Democratic that the only other GOP senator at the time was John Tower
in Texas. Thurmond won a landslide Senate re-election as a Republican in 1966
with full-page ads touting his career and virtues. The racism card was
played by some of his supporters, however, as the state Republican Party
newsletter printed a picture of his Democratic opponent shaking hands with a
black lawyer (thereby violating segregation principles), and an independent
group distributed brochures accusing national Democrats of promoting “Black
Revolution,” allegedly leading to urban riots (Cohodas, p. 385).
Strom Thurmond’s
subsequent re-elections from 1972 until the turn of the century showed a focus
on constituency service and helping all of the people of his state,
rather than any racist appeals. (As such, it’s kind of understandable that poor
Trent Lott, who was first elected to Congress in the Nixon re-election year of
1972, would forget Strom’s segregationist background, as Lott’s only personal
encounter with him was after that period.) In 1971 Thurmond beat the state’s
Democratic senator to the punch by appointing South Carolina’s first African
American congressional staff member. He also established the Strom
Thurmond Foundation (which still exists) to dispense college scholarships
to black students from South Carolina with the funds drawn from his speeches
and donations from family and friends. His 1972 reelection campaign showed a
great focus on constituency service with his D.C. office a “fountain of press
releases announcing grants to communities around the state,” with his
campaign ads including expressions of thanks from local officials, and
with his making many visits home to announce federal grants or to attend
dedication ceremonies (Cohodas, p. 427). His 1978 campaign stressed his
Washington experience, his ability to secure federal grants that helped his
state, and his committee assignments on the important committees of Armed
Services, Veterans Affairs, and Judiciary. He neutralized the age issue
(he was 75) by sliding down a fire pole at a fire station and by having
his four young children campaign for him (ten years previously, he had
married a 22-year-old former Miss South Carolina). Thurmond had secured federal
money for black as well as white communities, and he even won the endorsement
of the state’s African American mayors. A national columnist covering
the election and wondering how any African American could support a former
segregationist encountered two black constituents who had personally
benefitted from Thurmond’s constituency service, an example being the
senator’s diversion of an Air Force plane to transport a burn victim to
a Cincinnati hospital (Cohodas book, p. 448-449). Ideology was still a
motivating factor for the Senator and he used the L word against his Democratic
opponent, blasting the Harvard graduate as a “big-spending liberal”
backed by northerners (Cohodas 1994: 447). Thurmond won all of his re-elections
easily with his lowest vote margin being 55% in his last election of 1996.
(Interesting side note, Strom had had a daughter with his family’s African
American maid back when he was 22 years old. This wasn’t known until after he
had died in 2003 at the age of 100, but he supported his daughter Essie Mae Washington-Williams
financially including her college career, and her name has been added to the
Strom Thurmond monument on the statehouse grounds.)
Republicans have
been riding high in South Carolina this century. Starting in 2004, they have
consistently held the governorship and both U.S. senate seats. One of their
stars, Carroll Campbell, showed the way when he won two terms as governor
starting in 1986. Campbell was a conservative congressman who focused on
economic development, attracted a large BMW car plant to the state, and made
education a priority. Another prominent Republican governor of South Carolina
was Nikki Haley, who was a conservative woman of color (her parents were
from India), and who was governor when a white racist pictured with the
Confederate flag killed nine African Americans at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Haley was gutsy
by successfully fighting to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse
grounds (and destroy the flag pole), rejecting an effort by the GOP-controlled
state legislature to just take the flag down and let the flagpole remain (she
feared a future legislature might bring the flag back). The African American
congregation showed great moral and religious character by “forgiving” the
murderer (Indeed, they inspired Vice President Biden to worship at their church
after Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer.). Haley attended every funeral of
the church shooting victims and suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome. She
had opposed Trump’s first nomination as president, but Trump then picked the
independent-minded Haley as our U.N. Ambassador. Her book With All Due Respect
shows her conservative foreign policy values and her willingness to disagree
with Trump, but she also had respect for him as President, and unlike his
critics (John Bolton) she said that she just spoke her mind to him and had no
trouble working with him. The last sentence of her book (p. 248) shows the
optimism of this daughter of immigrants: "Even on our worst days, we are
blessed to live in America."
South Carolina’s two U.S. Senators are
both interesting Republicans. Lindsey Graham was a conservative
congressman elected to Thurmond’s seat in 2002. Graham had a reputation for
independence, as he had been part of an effort to depose House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, and he had supported Senator John McCain’s campaign finance reform
bill. Graham was an interesting guy, sometimes excitable, as he once yelled out
about terrorists: “They want to kill us all.” He was also initially a Trump
critic, saying that a choice between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in 2016 was
“like being shot or poisoned.” Trump as President spent a lot of time talking
with Graham over the phone, so Graham became more supportive of him. He was a
strong Trump supporter during the impeachment debate and during the Judge
Kavanaugh confirmation process. Graham was re-elected in 2020, beating the
state's first African American state Democratic party chair (Jaime Harrison),
who was well funded and was actually tied in the polls in early August. The
liberal Harrison then became the Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
During the 2021 statewide Virginia elections when Republicans swept all three
major races, Harrison accused the Republican gubernatorial candidate of using
the "racist dog whistle" of opposing critical race theory and on at
least two occasions he labeled the Republican Party as the "party of
fascism and fear". After the January 6 Trump mob insurrection, Senator
Graham blasted Trump's actions, showing his independence. He was a foreign
policy hawk and backed Trump’s actions against Iran. He died earlier this year.
The other Republican Senator is Tim Scott, an African
American appointed Senator by Governor Haley in 2013, who was then elected in
2014, and re-elected in 2016 and 2022. Scott grew up poor in a single parent
household and relied on faith and hard work to be successful. He served on
Charleston’s county council for 12 years, and in the state house for one term.
In 2010 he had Tea Party and Sarah Palin (a conservative former Alaska governor
who had been McCain’s vice presidential running mate) backing to knock off the
sons of Strom Thurmond and Carroll Campbell in the GOP congressional primary,
and he went on to win two general elections to Congress. Scott is a conservative
who is often interviewed on Fox, but he is very concerned over the injustice of
racial profiling. He has given speeches on the senate floor recounting how he
has been targeted himself by police (even on Capitol Hill), prompting his
Republican colleagues to vote for funds for better police training and city
purchases of body cameras. He led the GOP police reform bill effort during the first
Trump presidency. Senator Scott's reelection ad in 2022 was labeled from
"Cotton to Congress," as it related how his grandfather despite his
humble job had taught him "about faith and hard work," and to
"love America because of the promise of our future" in this
"amazing land of opportunity." Scott concluded the ad: "That is
why I will never back down, and never apologize, in defense of America and the
conservative values that make us exceptional" (Aubrie Spady article on Fox
News website, September 15, 2022).