People who own a flag larger than the sheet used to make their grandpappy’s Klan uniform love to explain how Republicans supported the Civil Rights Act. Even when they contend that segregationist Democrats were the “real racists,” they can never answer the follow-up question:
If Black people couldn’t vote, who elected the “real racists”?
If you are reluct…
ant to provide the correct answer (white people), you can just ask if they know Ralph Yarborough.
In 1957, Texas held a special election to replace its senator, who had been elected governor. Because it was Texas (which is basically Alabama wearing a cowboy hat), most pundits assumed that a segregationist Democrat would take the seat. But when Black and Hispanic voters, who usually supported GOP candidates, realized that the election was winner-take-all, they threw their support behind Yarborough, a liberal Democrat, who won the seat.
For years, conservative Republicans and states’ rights Democrats tried to unseat Yarborough, to no avail. Because of Yarborough’s non-white support, segregationist Dems couldn’t defeat him in the primary. Even well-funded Republican wannabes (like some guy named George H.W. Bush) couldn’t defeat him in the general elections. And since Yarborough’s support came from Black and brown people, he had to do whatever they wanted. So when the Senate put the 1964 Civil Rights Act up for a vote, all of the Southern senators from both parties voted against it …
Except one.
One week after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, the Senate was scheduled to confirm Former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins as head of the Community Relations Service, a new department created by the Civil Rights Act to mediate racial turmoil and disputes. To block the pro-civil rights nominee from winning the position, Segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond, a Democrat, stood in the door and tried to prevent Yarborough from casting the tie-breaking vote. Even though Yarborough was a Democrat, he knew that Black and Hispanic voters would hold him accountable. So he offered his fellow Democrat a solution:
“Fight me.”
OK, maybe I’m lying. This is how the official historian of the U.S. Senate describes the event.
Yarborough had been the only southern senator to vote for the Civil Rights Act. The Texan laughingly said, “Come on in, Strom, and help us get a quorum.” In a similarly lighthearted manner, Thurmond responded, “If I can keep you out, you won’t go in, and if you can drag me in, I’ll stay there.” Both men were 61 years old, but Thurmond was 30 pounds lighter and in better physical condition.
“After a few moments of light scuffling, each senator removed his suit jacket. Thurmond then wrestled the increasingly out-of-breath Yarborough to the floor. “Tell me to release you, Ralph, and I will,” said Thurmond. Yarborough refused …
Although Thurmond had won the match, he lost that day’s vote: 16 to 1.
Six months later, Alabama state troopers attacked civil rights activists marching to Montgomery to confront Alabama segregationist Democrat George Wallace about their voting rights. If you’ve ever looked at photos from the Selma to Montgomery March and wondered how a white man could march in front of a baby-faced John Lewis, alongside Coretta Scott King, wedged between Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young, that’s LeRoy Collins.
He was there because Black people exercised their political power to pass the Civil Rights Act. Thanks to the Civil Rights Act, the U.S. government sent a designated official to the march that resulted in the Voting Rights Act.
Sometimes, building political power comes down to a politician deciding if they’d rather fight their political opponent, violent racists, the police …
Or Black people.
Today’s reading list:
“Civil Rights-Era Government Agency In Justice Department to Be Purged”
