The President Addresses Racism in the Deep South

In October 1921, the Republican President visited Birmingham, Alabama, and shocked the South with a speech on Civil Rights that was years ahead of its time.

Birmingham was founded in 1871, during post-Civil War reconstruction. It grew rapidly into the South's major industrial city, becoming known as the 'Pittsburgh of the South.' Alabama was part of the solidly Democratic Deep South. Alabama supported every Democratic Presidential candidate from 1876 until 1964. Nonetheless, the city invited the Republican President to participate in its anniversary celebration.

According to reports, over one hundred thousand people lined the parade route. A large crowd gathered to hear his speech at an outdoor park. The crowd was segregated by race.

The Speech

The President started by extolling the city's progress, including the end of slavery: "[the city's achievements]…testify to us how far the South has progressed in a single generation: the generation since slavery was abolished and the rule of free labor and unfettered industrial opportunity became the rule of all of our great Republic."

He remarked that the Civil War started the South's transition from a purely "aristocratic agricultural region" to a modern diversified economy. "From that contest [the Civil War], the South emerged, not only with the foundation of industrial greatness securely laid but freed from the incubus of a labor system that had from colonial times chained it to the status of an almost purely agricultural community."

He described the experience of African-Americans serving in the military: "Thousands of black men, serving their country just as patriotically as did the white men, were transported overseas and experienced the life of countries where their color aroused less antagonism than it does here. Many of them aspire to go to Europe to live."

The President talked about citizenship: "A high-grade colored soldier told me that the war brought his race the first real conception of citizenship—the first full realization that the flag was their flag, to fight for, to be protected by them, and also to protect them."

And now the President asks for equality: "These things lead one to hope that we shall find an adjustment of relations between the two races, in which both can enjoy full citizenship, the full measure of usefulness to the country and of opportunity for themselves, and in which recognition and reward shall, at last, be distributed in proportion to individual deserts, regardless of race or color." He continued: "Here then is the true conception of the interrelation of color—complete uniformity in ideals, absolute equality in the paths of knowledge and culture, equal opportunity for those who strive, equal admiration for those who achieve… they would be treated just as other people are treated, guaranteed all the rights that people of other colors enjoy, and made, in short, to regard themselves as citizens of a country and not of a particular race." He concludes: "I would insist upon equal educational opportunity for both." In some accounts, the President also stated: "Whether you like it or not, our democracy is a lie unless you stand for that equality."

The President spoke of voting rights. "Take first the political aspect. I would say let the black man vote when he is fit to vote: prohibit the white man voting when he unfit to vote."

He is in favor of Black pride: "But there must be such education among the colored people as will enable them to develop their own leaders…leaders who will inspire the race with proper ideals of race pride, of national pride, of an honorable destiny, an important participation in the universal effort for the advancement of humanity as a whole."

The President talked about the melting pot: "Coming as Americans do from many origins of race, tradition, language, color, institutions, heredity; engaged as we are in the huge effort to work an honorable national destiny from so many different elements…the idea of our oneness as Americans has risen superior to every appeal to mere class and group."

In 1921, Southern Blacks supported the Republican Party, while Southern Whites voted Democrat. "I want to see the time come when black men will…vote for Democratic candidates, if they prefer the Democratic policy on tariff or taxation, or foreign relations, or what-not; and when they will vote the Republican ticket only for like reasons."

Reaction to the Speech

Most of the Whites in the segregated audience refused to applaud the speech. However, the Blacks cheered widely. Southern newspapers criticized the President. Black leader W.E.B. Dubois “gave him [the President] every ounce of credit he deserves.”

Lynching

In accepting the Republican nomination for President, he said: "The Federal Government should stamp out lynching…The negro…should be guaranteed the enjoyment of all of their rights…that their sacrifices in blood on the battlefields of the Republic have entitled them to freedom and opportunity."

The Republican platform that year included this position: "We urge Congress to…to end Lynching in this country which continues to be a terrible blot on our American civilization."

The President encouraged Congress to pass an anti-lynching bill: "Congress ought to wipe the stain of barbaric lynching from the banners of a free and orderly, representative democracy."

The House of Representatives passed the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill, but the Senate filibustered it. In 2005, the Senate passed a resolution apologizing for its failure to pass anti-lynching legislation: "Be it resolved, that the Senate apologizes to the victims of lynching for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation; expresses the deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets of the Senate to the descendants of victims of lynching, the ancestors of whom were deprived of life, human dignity, and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States; and remembers the history of lynching, to ensure that these tragedies will be neither forgotten nor repeated."

Who was this President?

Warren G. Harding. Admit it, all you know about Harding and the ‘Teapot Dome’ scandal? Harding’s trip to Birmingham was the first outing to the Deep South by a President. This was one of the greatest Civil rRghts speeches made between the Grant administration of the 1870s and the Kennedy administration 40 years later. And it was given in the Deep South at the height of Jim Crow when the Ku Klux Klan was active.

There is more to Warren Harding than Civil Rights and Teapot Dome. We will cover that in a future post.

Click here to view the full text of Harding’s speech.