In none of the above editorial excerpts was a word of sympathy extended to the victims of violence or an express denunciation made against those engaged in the particular acts. One is reminded of the old condemnations of lynching. No one “approved” the practice in principle, but.... On the other hand, when an Arkansas segregationist, C. E. Blake, was struck on the head with the butt of a rifle which he was trying to wrest away from a federal soldier standing guard, there was more admiration for than censure of his action. Senator Johnston suggested to Governor Faubus that “warrants be issued for the arrest of federal soldiers responsible for unnecessary bludgeoning of Arkansas citizens and unlawful invasion of their homes.”[497]
In fact, the state’s senior senator had considerable gratuitous advice for Governor Faubus. “If I were governor of Arkansas,” said Johnston, “I would ignore the President and call out the National Guard in the name of the State of Arkansas to defend life and property and to defend the state against all alien influences and forces especially the NAACP and troublemakers who wish to force a division upon the country.” From his Washington office the Senator told the press that it was “a known fact that subversive elements in this country support the NAACP in inflaming the issue of integration and their ultimate goal is to conquer us through division. If the President were tolerant of the tolerant South’s position and less tolerant of the intolerant NAACP the grave situation at Little Rock would never have occurred.”[498]
Other South Carolina political leaders expressed themselves with varying degrees of vigor on the Arkansas situation. In a prepared speech at Bennettsville, elder South Carolina politician James F. Byrnes voiced complete confidence in the President’s integrity but maintained that he was being “misled” by Attorney General Brownell. He believed that Governor Faubus had been vindicated by events and called the assignment of Judge Davies to the case highly “unwise.” Byrnes declared that the Arkansas affair was staged purely for political reasons as a means of outbidding the Democrats for the Negro vote. That South Carolina had avoided such difficulties resulted from the high quality of Negro schools in the state—better than those provided for whites—and the sensible attitude of the “real” Negro leaders. The former governor called on the Southern states to desert their allegiance to the Democratic Party and to unite for southern independent action.[499]
Byrnes’s call for southern political independence echoed the plea made earlier by Farley Smith, leader of the South Carolina Independent Democrats. By sending troops into Arkansas, said Smith, the President had “succumbed to integration extremists” and “silenced the voice of moderation and understanding.” Smith declared further: “We are now fair game for every Negro baiter and South hater and wild-eyed fanatic on both sides of this momentous question. God only knows where this will all end. But one thing should be crystal clear by now—the South has had enough.” With this last statement James P. Richards, former South Carolina Congressman and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed. “It’s about time they realize that an issue like this can’t be handled by the federal government,” he asserted. Richards, whose job it then was as President Eisenhower’s roving ambassador to make friends for the United States amongst the dark-skinned peoples of the Middle East, observed that “the Russian provinces ... have a form of segregation between the Russians and the others. When you ask why, they say because the people prefer it that way.”[500]
Governor Timmerman, who had sent a telegram of encouragement to Governor Faubus, pointed out that the Little Rock incident could never have occurred in South Carolina because of the state’s educational segregation laws.[501] The same position was taken by State Senator Marion Gressette who heads the state committee entrusted with the preservation of racial segregation in the schools. The law of South Carolina, Gressette pointed out, would automatically shut off state funds to any school ordered by a court to accept a Negro and also the school from which the latter came. “Our law ... would permit a cooling off period in South Carolina,” Gressette observed. “Where we would go from there would depend upon the circumstances and no one can predict what the circumstances would be.” He divulged that his committee had a plan for such a contingency but refused to reveal its contents. He did give notice, though, that the federal government “would be absolutely helpless in trying to force a person or persons into South Carolina schools. The federal government has no power to compel the General Assembly of South Carolina to appropriate funds for the operation of schools.”[502]
Not all of Senator Gressette’s colleagues shared his opinion that Little Rock couldn’t happen in South Carolina. On October 6th, Senator John D. Long announced that the legislative delegation of Union County had arranged the purchase of nine new Browning sub-machine guns with 1000 rounds of ammunition to beat back “any invasion of federal troops” such as took place at Little Rock. “Anyone violating our laws,” said Long, “will be arrested, jailed and treated the same as any other accused persons.” Senator Long was confident that Union County Sheriff J. Harold Lamb and his eight deputies could handle any situation that might arise.[503]
Of the many causes for which South Carolinians blamed the renewal and intensification of the integration efforts of the 1950’s, few have been more prominent than the economic. The integration drive of the post-World War II period coincided, of course, with the unprecedented industrial growth of the South. At the same time, national labor organizations, which previously had made discouragingly little progress in South Carolina, began increased “agitation” to unionize the labor force of the state. Since essentially the same forces are opposed to both integration and unionization, it is natural that these two aspects of the new Yankee aggression should be presented to the public as different phases of the same thing.
South Carolina’s principal industry is cotton textiles. Only a small percentage of textile workers in the state are unionized and nowhere does there exist equality of employment opportunities for Negroes in South Carolina textiles. In fact state law on labor and employment contains the following provisions:
It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in the business of cotton textile manufacturing in this state to allow or permit operatives, help and labor of different races
(a) to labor and work together within the same room,