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 - 22. Political Practices Today - 1. The Southern Political Scene
<< 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.
476 An American Dilemma
ity is a great campaign asset for a candidate ^
in some regions in the Deep
South “nigger baiting” still gets votes. All over the South it is dangerous
for a candidate to be accused of friendliness to the Negro. As we have
observed earlier, political campaigning and election have in the South
ceremonial and symbolic significance, and oratorical ability is a first neces-
sity for a Southern politician.
In keeping Negroes from the polls by such devices as the poll tax, white
men have been disfranchised. In preventing a two-party system from
arising—which might let in the Negro vote—white men have been kept
politically apathetic. White Southerners stay away from the polls for the
most part.® Another large proportion comes to the polls solely because
they are given a dollar or two apiece for their vote by the local political
machine. As participation in elections is kept low, relatively little money
can often control elections in the South. And investigations show that
corruption and illegal practices at the polls are the rule—not the excep-
tion.® The election machinery is in most parts of the region far behind
that in the North and in the other democratic countries of the world. For
example, the secret, printed, uniform ballot (the so-called “Australian
ballot”) is not used over large areas of the South, and election officials and
hangers-on at the polls know how everyone votes."^
At the same time there is a myth in the South that politics is clean, that
it became clean when the new state constitutions—inaugurated between
1890 and 1910—completed the process of disfranchising the Negro. Many
a story is passed around describing the terrible times before 1890 when
Negroes were fed liquor and herded to the polls, first by the Republi-
cans and later by the Democrats and Populists when they split and appealed
to the Negro vote.
As a prerequisite for understanding the Negro’s role in Southern
politics, it is necessary to consider two further aspects of the political scene:
the influence of the South in national politics and the position there of the
Republican party.
The difference between politics in the South and in the rest of the
nation is so great that it visibly affects the personality of . Southern mem-
bers of Congress: they act and think differently in Washington from what
they do in their home states. So do Northerners, of course j
but the shift
undergone by the Southerners is much more drastic. The typical Southern
members of Congress are, however, basically so far away from national
norms that, in spite of all accommodations, they remain a distinctive force
in Washington. This fact becomes all the more important as, for a variety
of reasons, they have a disproportionate influence in national politics.
Seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned according to
population, and the nine million Negroes in the South give the South a
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
