JOHNSON == A CHAMPION OF CIVIL RIGHTS?
American Negroes Adopt Wait-and-See Attitude
. By Evelyn Sell
What happens now to the civil-rights struggle with Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House? The answer can be put briefly: It is too early to tell about the tactics and timing, but the eventual goals and the main battle lines remain the same, .
There has been, of course, a good deal of speculation about this Southern leader's attitude towards the Negroes! struggle for equality. | His initial speeches and steps were designed to assure Negroes and colored peoples throughout the world that he would press for civil rights, On November 27 the new president spoke before a joint meeting. of both houses of Congress, Prominent among the guests whom he invited to hear his talk was Mrs. Zephyr Wright, the Negro woman who has been the Johnsonts cook for twenty years. .
Johnson told Congress: ". . . no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedyts memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil-rights bill for which he fought, We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more, Yes, it is time now to write the next chapter ~= and to write it in books of law." ; :
The newspapers have headlined this call for action, But at the moment the bill is bogged down in legislative machinery. Both the Southern Democratic congressmen and their counterparts of the North can be expected to continue delaying action as part of their strategy of destroying it by attrition,
Johnson continued: "I urge you again, as I did in 1957, and again in 1960, to enact a civil-rights law.so that we can move forward to eliminate from this nation every trace of discrimination and oppression based upon race or color,"
Since Johnson himself brought up his past civil-rights record, let's take a look at it. Ruler of the Senate
As majority floor leader, Senator Johnson held the most powerful posi-+ tion in the Senate, The majority leader, elected by his colleagues at the beginning of each session of Congress, organizes and controls the forces of his party in the Senate. He makes the motions, designates debaters, allocates times of speeches, and generally plots strategy for his party in the Senate. Therefore, whatever his party does -~- or does not do -«~ becomes part of his own personal political record,
This was the situation that Majority Leader Johnson faced in 1957: The White House was held by a Republican, Eisenhower. Normally the Demo= erats get seventy-five to eighty per cent of the Negro vote, but in 1956
-Qe-
millions of Negroes voted Republican rather than support the party of the Southern racist Dixiecrats, The politicians in both parties responded to this new turn, The Republicans sponsored a civilerights bill in a bid to win even more Negro support. The Democrats, attempting to lure back the. Negro votes, decided to alter their traditional strategy on civil-rights legislation, Johnson had quite a problem on his hands: how was he to win back Negro votes and still prevent a split within his own party between the Northern and Southern wings?
For eightyeseven years all civilerights legislation in the Senate had been blocked by the Southern Democratic politicians who control powerful legislative committees and who use the filibuster to defeat civil-rights | bills, The filibuster works like this: a minority of senators take turns speaking, Debate cannot be ended by a simple majority of those present but only by a two-thirds of all senators whether present or not, Thus, a Little over one-third of the Senate can tie up that body indefinitely, To hold the floor, any nonsense is considered in order. Thus those participating in a filibuster will read whole telephone directories, cook books, etc. The filibuster is ended only by adjournment or when the majority gives in. Any civil-rights bill, therefore, requires the consent of the Southerners,. Adroit Parliamentary Maneuver
The first test of the sincerity of the Democrats on civil rights and Johnson's skill in keeping party unity came at the opening of Congress, Each Congress lasts for two years and on the opening day the Senate adopts the rules of procedure under which it will operate during that whole period, Filibustering is permitted under Rule 22 and unless that rule is changed on the opening day, the threat of filibuster hangs over the Senate for the next two years, All the liberals make great speeches about how they will fight to change Rule 22 -- but it is still in effect to this © very day. Each opening day sees a sham battle acted out for the benefit of the voters: the liberals heroically fight Dragon 22 and then go down in | glorious defeat before the Evil Spirits of Conservatism. In 1957 a varia« tion on this theme was worked out by Johnson as majority leader,
A Democratic senator from a western state made a motion to consider the rules; i.e., to open the possibility to change rules. Johnson was immediately recognized by the chairman, Johnson made a motion to table;. i,e., to stop any consideration of changes in rules. By unanimous vote the Senate postponed the motion to table for six hours, That made everybody happy. The liberals got a chance to make their speeches; the white supre- -macists were assured they could keep their precious filibuster weapon; Lyndon Johnson was happy because he had prevented the civil-rights issue from breaking up party unity.
{The Democrats are a contradictory mixture of (1) Dixiecrats who are interested in maintaining the Jim Crow, nonunion situation in the South; | (2) Northern big city machines interested in the "pork barrel" -- political jobs, patronage, contracts, graft; and (3) the labor bureaucracy who deliver the white and black working-class vote in return for the prestige and pay~off received from the top leaders of the Democratic party who represent big-business interests, ) a
Qe
Compromise Does It |
The fate of the civil-rights bill itself was part of another clever political maneuver, A compromise was worked out with the Southerners, They promised to hold back their filibuster on condition that the bill be weakened’ so much that it would be acceptabie to the South,
This new strategy worked out beautifully both for the Northern liberals, who needed the Negro vote, and the Dixiecrats, who sought to | keep the Negroes second-class citizens, After Congress adjourned, the | leader of the Southern bloc, Senator.Russell of Georgia, said, "The fact that we were able to confine the federal activities to the field of voting and keep the withering hand of the federal government out of our schools and social order is to me the sweetest victory of my twenty-five years as a senator from Georgia,"
Well, so much for Johnson's record in the Senate as champion of civil rights. What about his record since then? One thing you must admit: he gives very good speeches about freedom, equality, justice, brotherhood, etc... He has. been talking civil rights real good ~- ever since he decide to push for the presidency three to four years ago,
Historical precedent stands against election of a Southerner as President. . (Johnson is. the first Southerner to gain the White House since the Civil War,) He consequently sought to build an image as a "Westerner," .@ Texas. ranch owner,
; The erupting Freedom Now struggle was forcing all presidential aspire ants to come out for civil rights if they wanted to win national office. Kennedy had a hard time selling Johnson as his running mate to the labor and Negro delegates at the 1960 Democratic convention. A big selling job has gone on ever since, : So Words Outweigh Deeds
In 1961 Johnson became head of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and won the praise of Negro leaders although the record shows that he did little in fact to change employment opportunities for the mass of Negroes, But -- he talked good. For example, last August 15 he addressed a group. of Michigan businessmen at a conference sponsored by the comaittee. He said, "The mere fact that we have let so many years go by before we launched serious action [against employment bias] does not mean that we have any excuse for letting more years go by,"
_ A few days earlier he had told a group of Houston, Texas, businessmen, "Certainly we know it is wrong -- certainly we know it is a corrosive can= cer in our society -- for tax-paying, arms-bearing, vote=-casting Americans to be unable to find a bed for the night or meals for their children along the highways of our free and decent society,"
In addition to his promptness in calling for a speedy vote on the civilerights bill, President Johnson has made special efforts to cement relations with prominent Negro leaders, On November 29 he spent forty= five minutes with Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP], the oldest and largest civil-rights organization in the United States,
Coming out of this conference, Mr, Wilkins said, "We have very great faith in the President's attitude on civil rights," "Wilkins is one of the "Big Six," the leaders of the six most outstanding national civil-rights © groups. * (The other five groups and leaders are: Rev,.Dr.Martin_ Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference [ScLc]: A.Philip Randolph of the American Negro Labor Council _LANLC]; James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE]; James Forman and John Lewis, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC, pronounced ponien' Ls Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban League LNUL].) The "Big Six" announced that they were meeting on Decem= ber 3 to chart their course for the coming period, Question of Demonstrations
One of the important points to be discussed is whether or not to call > off demonstrations for a certain period, There has been a suspension of almost all civil-rights demonstrations since the assassination of President Kennedy. Immediately after the event, planned demonstrations were either called off or turned into memorial services. The well-known Negro author Louis E, Lomax asked America's Negroes "to suspend all demonstrations at least through the holiday season in tribute to the President. "
Even the conservative Wilkins would not commit himself to. such a pro= posal, The spokesman. of the most militant group of the "Big Six," James ‘Forman of SNCC, rejected such a suspension, saying". . . all is *not quiet on the. Southern front and is not going to be quiet." :
In Detroit, four members ‘of the Group on Advanced Leadership [GOAL] picketed the annual Thanksgiving Day parade and handed out leaflets calling for a Christmas boycott; i.e., to refrain from buying presents as a demonstration of Negro buying power and in order to force stores..to hire. more Negroes,
White and Negro Democratic party politicians are rallying behind President Johnson «- a national election is due next year and the Republicans are a real threat, Even those Negroes who were extremely critical ef Johnson in 1960 are praising him today and expressing confidence in his civil-rights outlook,
Southern leaders are happier with Johnson than with Kennedy. Roy Mayhall, chairman of the state Democratic executive committee of Alabama, said that "as President Johnson is the first Democratic President from the South since the War Between the States, the Southern states more than dikely will support him," 7
Reports from the Negro man-in-the-street, however, show that most of them have taken a "let's wait and see" attitude about the new President. And a warning note was sounded by SNCC leader Forman that "if Johnson doesn't deliver on civil rights, we should not deliver himback to the White House in 1964," . , ;
HUGO BLANCO