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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 20. Underlying Factors - 5. The Reconstruction Amendments - 6. Memories of Reconstruction
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446 An American Dilemma
In the South of today the writer has observed that many white persons
above the least educated strata are inclined to agree in principle that even
the Negro has a sort of ^^right’’ to vote. With the majority of Southerners,
this idea is, of course, only one element in an inconsistent system of
thoughts wherein also the very opposite principle is contained and is,
indeed, given greater emphasis. ,
This conflict might be important as a
symptom of change toward national ideals sanctioned by the American
Creed. It shows itself in the fact that the principle as such is seldom denied,
except by persons with exceptionally anti-legal leanings.^^
The statutory requirements of property and poll tax payment, literacy,
understanding of the Constitution, good character, and so forth^®—which
at the time of their enactment were openly declared to aim only at circum-
vention of the constitutional Amendments^®—are more and more being
thought of as within the Constitution. Probably a majority of Southerners,
and not only liberal Southerners, are prepared to state that in time to come,
when Negroes become educated, the South will have to give them the
vote. Attempting to reconcile their electoral practices with constitutional
requirements, the Southerners have become accustomed to insist that they
are not discriminating against ^‘race, color or previous condition of servi-
tude” but only against ignorance and irresponsibility. Repeating these
statements throughout the years, reading them, and hearing them has the
effect of conditioning the Southerners to believe them. It is a difficult task
for even the most sophisticated person to keep on saying something for a
purpose without eventually coming to believe in it—with at least half his
soul.
But keeping the Negroes disfranchised in the face of the clear-cut
constitutional Amendments allows Southern conservatism nothing more
than a pretense of respect for the law. On this most crucial point it is
doomed to insincerity.
6. Memories of Reconstruction
A review of the various devices by which the Negroes are disfranchised
in the South today cannot avoid exposing a rather odious panorama of
legal trickery, unfair administration, intimidation and forthright violence.®
In explanation of this the Southerner will regularly bring forward the
horrors of the Reconstruction governments and ‘‘black domination.” These
memories are in a sense cherished. They serve a vital defensive function
to the white South. Even the liberal Southerner—^and quite particularly
when he ventures to criticize these very practices, which he often does with
courage and vision—^has to express his abhorrence of the Reconstruction
atrodties. They are, in fact, symbols of regional allegiance.
The North needs them, also, though to a lesser degree, in order to
* See CViapter 22.
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