In the campaign the Democrats made only slightly less use of the race issue than did the Independents. Democratic strategy was to present the latter as Republicans in disguise and then to attack the racial policies of the Republicans. Democrats called Eisenhower “the greatest integrator since Abraham Lincoln” for his endorsement of the Court decision; his appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren; his elimination of segregation in the armed forces (“Except for this, it might not be necessary to continue the draft.”); his abolition of separate recruitments for Navy stewards; his abolition of segregation in the Charleston Naval Yard; his abolition of segregation in all veterans hospitals (“The helpless sick are denied any choice.”); and his abolition of segregation in Washington. Indicative of the Democrats’ attitude was the use of a quotation from an NAACP report stating: “When freedom, equality, and justice shall have been fully realized for every citizen, historians of tomorrow may well look back to the year of 1953 as the beginning of the end of social discrimination and segregation in the United States.”[444]
The Democrats made wide use of state officials in reassuring voters that the South’s best hope lay with its traditional party. Congressman William Jennings Bryan Dorn declared that the support of the national Democratic Party by Senator Richard B. Russell and Herman Talmadge of Georgia was sufficient proof for him. The Democrats also emphasized such issues as Democratic control of Congress and the appointment of federal judges. State executive committeeman E. P. Riley of Greenville asked, “Do you want judges selected by our senators, who believe in our way of life, or do you want them selected by Negro Congressman Adam Clayton Powell ... [and] Dewey and Brownell, whose only thought of the South is hatred?”[445]
The Republicans soft-pedalled the race issue and even made some efforts to attract Negro votes. An undated open letter from State Republican Chairman Oscar W. Pitts urged all South Carolinians, “regardless of creed or color,” to support Eisenhower.[446] Barrington Parker, a Washington attorney sponsored by the Republican National Committee, told the Palmetto State Voters Association that “no thinking Negro can go to the polls to vote the Democratic ticket.”[447] Political advertisements of the only Republican candidate in the election, Leon P. Crawford, the mayor of Clemson and the opponent of Senator Olin D. Johnston, made no reference to the race issue. They noted, however, Crawford’s belief in “firm aggressive pursuit of States Rights measures.... Constitutional government of the people, for the people and by the people ... [and] less Federal meddling in State and local schools and other affairs.”[448] Henry Gaud, a Charleston County Republican leader, told Carolinians that segregation was not the issue in the election. Segregation had been used by the Independents to get “prejudices aroused.” The real issue was “whether or not this government is going to become totalitarian. Stevenson believes in socialization.” He agreed with the Independents that “leftwingers and racketeers” ruled the Democratic Party.[449]
Election results showed approximately 138,000 votes for the Democrats, 75,000 for the Republicans and 88,000 for the Independents. Generally the upcountry counties voted strongly Democratic while the lowcountry voted Independent. Eisenhower carried two counties, Aiken and Beaufort in the lowcountry. The News and Courier, still frustrated, expressed disappointment and indignation over the vote for Stevenson. According to the voice of “independence,” white South Carolinians again had betrayed themselves to the “compulsory race mixers, Northern busybodies and professional South-baiters.” They were disloyal “to their forefathers—such men as Wade Hampton and John Calhoun.”[450] Some consolation was derived from the fact that for the first time since Reconstruction, the Democratic Party in the state received less than an absolute majority of the votes cast. Yet it should also be noted that slightly more than 70 percent of the voters were against the Independents.
The Negro vote cannot be evaluated accurately but indications are that it was split fairly evenly between the Democrats and Republicans. For example Columbia’s Ward Nine, a traditional bellwether precinct for the Negro vote in the state, gave 551 votes to the Democrats, 504 to the Republicans, 56 to the Independents. Many Negro dominated precincts throughout the state went Republican, reversing the 1952 results.[451] Then the Negroes had voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
Although most of the drive behind the Independents petered out with the election returns, leaders of the movement endeavored to keep the organization alive. In January 1957 a meeting was held in Columbia, attended by 75 persons. Talk centered on plans for taking over control of the state Democratic Party organization. Since this could not be immediately achieved, the 75 had to be content with the establishment of a permanent organization outside the party. Farley Smith was reelected chairman of the Independents.[452]
Because of the large anti-Democratic vote in South Carolina in 1952 and 1956, many consider the state at last ready for a bona fide two-party system. The more conservative, however, favor continuation of a one-party system. M. H. Sass, in a revealing newspaper article, thought that “the very last thing that would be desirable for South Carolina in the foreseeable future” was the two-party system. Such, he declared, would “result in the political fragmentation of the South along social and economic lines.” Southern conservatives would be aligned with non-Southern conservatives while “Southern workers and smaller farmers would be in alliance with their national counterparts.” Such an arrangement would not only be “a severe blow to the South’s maintenance of its separate identity, culturally speaking,” but would also give “the balance of political power ... to the Negro.” Under these circumstances “questions of economic policy, labor relations, etc., would become paramount issues.” The presence in South Carolina of “an abundance of raw scalawag material,” said Sass, would insure chaos if a two-party system were established.[453]
In the political arena, then, the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision and the increasing Negro efforts to achieve integration have resulted in a continuation and intensification of the use by South Carolina politicians of the race issue. In 1958 indications are that this situation will not end until the Negro vote becomes important enough to be vied for by politicians.