Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 21. Southern Conservatism and Liberalism - 5. Southern Liberalism
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
472 An American Dilemma
more difficult to carry out politically if the Negro angle of it cannot be
concealed. But in spite of these formidable drawbacks, Southern liberals
have originated and carried out the interracial movement, about which
more will be said in a later chapter. Generally the liberals will be found
to stand for the most advanced policies in the Negro problem which are
possible to advance in the Southern community where they are active.
Southern liberals have been standing up for equal justice to the Negroes
and have fought the lynching practice. They have often declared them-
selves against the disfranchisement of the Negroes. They have been active
in helping the Negroes get a fairer share of education, housing, employ-
ment and relief. They do not, however, go so far as to demand “social”
equality for Negroes, and they declare against “intermarriage.” They
usually direct their main activity on broader problems of economic, social,
and educational reforms of the South as a whole, and maintain that, as a
result of such a general improvement of the region, the conditions will be
eased even for the Negro people.
As the South has the greatest problems of any section of the country, it
has been natural for Southern liberals to concentrate their political specula-
tion and action on their own region. Relatively speaking, national and inter-
national issues have not loomed so large in the South as in the North. In
this sense, the typical Southern liberal has been provincial. On the other
hand, he has been more likely than his compeer in the North to think con-
cretely and constructively in terms of the entire Southern region rather
than in terms of a state. This is a heritage from the great national split.
Against provincialism, however, works the clear understanding among
Southern liberals that they derive much of their power from outside their
area, and that the future of their cause in the South is vitally interwoven
with political developments in the North and in the whole world. This
latter tendency has, of course, been strengthened during the New Deal
when federal legislation has been the strongest liberalizing force in the
South. The editorial pages in liberal newspapers will thus be found to
discuss, with increasing courage and insight, national and world issues and
events. It should be understood that this is also a practical way of propa-
gating liberalism in the South. In the Southern milieu, it is easier to get
away with advanced thinking about Germany, India, or New York and
even about national legislation if it does not concern concrete Southern
problems. The outspoken liberalism in broader issues which can be observed
in liberal Southern newspapers is thus often a compensation and an escape
for forced conservatism at home.^^ It is also apparent that the “heavier”
literature in books and magazine articles, which is written for a less popular
and less dangerous public, is more concentrated on Southern problems.
The central concern of the Southern liberal is always the South. The
Southern liberals, more than similar groups in other parts of the country,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
