2013 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thurber, Timothy Nels.
Republicans and race : the GOPs frayed relationship with African Americans, 19451974 / Timothy N. Thurber.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7006-1938-2 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-7006-2029-6 (ebook)
1. Republican Party (U.S. : 1854 )History20th century. 2. Party affiliationUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. African AmericanPolitical activityHistory20th century. 4. African AmericansPolitics and government20thcentury. 5. African AmericansCivil rightsHistory20th century. 6. Civil rightsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 7. United StatesPolitics and government19451989. 8. United StatesRace relations. I. Title.
JK2356.T48 2013
324.273408996073dc23 2013020164
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is recycled and contains 30 percent postconsumer waste. It is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials z39.481992.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book involved a long journey that required a great deal of assistance. I wish to thank the many archivists and others who helped me navigate an ocean of documents. Financial support for the considerable travel required was provided by the State University of New York at Oswego, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Everett Dirksen Congressional Leadership Center, the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Harry S. Truman Foundation, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, and the Nelson Rockefeller Institute. Virginia Commonwealth University also granted a semester-long sabbatical that enabled me to focus on writing.
I am also very grateful to the numerous people who gave me feedback as I worked and reworked the manuscript. Kevin Byrne offered wise counsel and encouragement on this and many other matters. Joseph Crespino, Matthew Dallek, Michael Flamm, Dean Kotlowski, Kevin Kruse, Robert Mason, and Timothy Stanley read selected chapter drafts, conference papers, or other material. Their perceptive insights and suggestions greatly improved the manuscript. Special thanks to David Nichols and Irwin Gellman, who generously shared their thoughts and kept prodding me to finish the job. Thanks, as well, to the many panelists and audience members who heard parts of this work at various conferences over the years. Their comments and questions sharpened my thinking. Any errors, of course, remain solely my own.
It has been a delight to work with the staff at the University Press of Kansas. Fred Woodward has been a faithful champion of this project and a source of good advice. Larisa Martin, Rebecca Schuler, and Sara Henderson White have been of tremendous assistance in moving the book to press.
Most of all, I wish to thank Allison, Ian, and Anika. Their love and support have sustained me through this long journey, and they remind me every day of what matters most.
Republicans
and Race
Introduction
Three weeks before he was officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate in 2000, George W. Bush addressed the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Knowing he faced a hostile audience (in 1983 its delegates had booed and hissed when his father insisted that Republican policies benefited African Americans), Bush sought to disarm the crowd with humor, quipping that he had a couple, maybe more than a couple supporters among them. He then turned more serious and confessed that the party of [Abraham] Lincoln has not always carried the mantle of Lincoln. But, the Texan insisted, the future could be different. He agreed that racism remained a serious national problem, pledged to vigorously enforce civil rights laws, and called for education reform, greater health care access, more home ownership, and help for religious organizations that assisted the suffering and hurting. A deeply religious man, Bush affirmed that the state should help the destitute but also insisted that such people need[ed] what no government can provide, the power of compassion and prayer and love. Audience members remained leery. One, who had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in nearly half a century, deemed Bushs ideas a step in the right direction but then observed, Face it, they havent done anything for us.
In contrast, the NAACP delegates warmly welcomed Bushs Democratic opponent, Vice President Albert Gore Jr., three days later. They cheered when Gore proclaimed himself a member of their organization and reeled off a list of federal policy prescriptions that included supporting affirmative action, protecting Social Security and Medicare from budget cuts, curbing racial profiling by law enforcement officers, and fostering economic development. Gore contrasted his religious views with Bushs by declaring that a person expresses faith through action, not rhetoric. Results, he argued, matter more than good intentions. The NAACP delegates divergent responses to the two candidates foreshadowed Bushs winning a paltry 9 percent of the black vote in the November election.
That 91 percent of black voters cast their ballots for Gore is evidence that nothing separates the American electorate more than race. Black loyalty to the Democratic Party remains high across age, class, gender, national origin, and other demographic characteristics. Republican voters, in contrast, are overwhelmingly white. Since 1964, no Republican presidential candidate has attracted more than 15 percent of the black vote.
Two narratives dominate contemporary discussions of African Americans and the Republican Party. One stresses that during the mid-1960s and early 1970s, Republicans consciously abandoned their identity as the procivil rights party of Lincoln to woo whites, especially in the South, who were eager to preserve their political, economic, and social power in the face of challenges from the civil rights movement and federal authorities. In this view, race has played a decisive role in the nations conservative turn since the late 1960s. A second interpretation, usually offered by Republicans themselves or by conservative activists, denies any transformation. Proponents of this view uphold the GOP as fighting to desegregate the South and protect black voting rights. They contend it was the Democratic Party that stood in the way of racial progress during the mid-twentieth century and continues to offer policies that harm black families and communities.
I offer a fresh look at the relationship between African Americans and the GOP. This book explores how Republicans at the federal level approached racial policy and politics between 1945 and 1974. Though the struggle for black equality existed before then and continues today, these three decades constitute a distinct era in that battle. African Americans and their allies grew more assertive in challenging the status quo. Some focused on direct action protests, while others primarily lobbied the federal government. Civil rights reformers demanded changes in economics, segregation, voting, housing, and other matters. Their struggle encompassed the entire nation, not just the South. The most prominent and influential reformers focused on removing racial distinctions from the lawthey fought for a color-blind society.
