Southern Manifesto

About the Author

The Southern Manifesto was the product of many minds. The document, originally proposed by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, went through six revisions. Strom Thurmond (1902–2003) was the principal instigator behind the Southern Manifesto. He was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, and he graduated from Clemson College before serving as a school superintendent, a senator, a judge, and governor. In 1948 Thurmond rose to national prominence when he ran for president as head of the Dixiecrat Party. Although he won only four states and thirty-nine electoral votes, this was a remarkable showing for a third-party candidate. Thurmond's willingness to stand firm on racial segregation and his ability to muster inventive constitutional arguments in its defense made him a popular hero among many white South Carolinians. With their support, Thurmond won an election to the U.S. Senate in 1954 as a write-in candidate. He was the only person to accomplish such a feat. That same year, the Supreme Court helped define the course of Thurmond's early senatorial career with its Brown v. Board of Education decision. Thurmond opposed the decision and its enforcement. In 1956 he proposed the Southern Manifesto to resist the Court's decision.

Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) was Virginia's most powerful political figure during the mid-twentieth century. He grew up in Winchester, Virginia, a small town in the Shenandoah Valley, where his father operated a local newspaper and an apple orchid. In 1915 Byrd parlayed a prosperous business career at the Valley Turnpike Company into a successful political career. He was elected to the Virginia state senate in 1915, the chairmanship of the Virginia Democratic Committee in 1922, and the governor's office in 1926. As governor, Byrd formed a coalition to control the state's political life for more than three decades. He advocated strict construction of the Constitution, racial segregation, and a pay-as-you-go economic policy that limited taxes and government spending. In 1933 Byrd was elected to the U.S. Senate, beginning a long political tenure that included key debates on school desegregation. Byrd's most infamous statement on the matter came in February 1956, when he called for organized massive resistance in the South.

Richard Russell, Jr. (1897–1971), was the most influential southern senator in 1956. He was born in Winder, Georgia, where he followed in his father's footsteps as a lawyer and legislator. He received a law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1918 and, three years later, won an election to the state house of representatives. After a ten-year legislative stint, Russell was elected governor of Georgia and then U.S. senator. He served in the Senate from 1933 to 1971, leading the conservative coalition that dominated Congress from 1937 to 1963. Russell was a key figure in the drafting of the Southern Manifesto.

Sam Ervin, Jr. (1896–1985), was one of the most powerful and influential southern senators of the mid-twentieth century. Ervin, a native of Morgantown, North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School. Ervin parlayed a distinguished service record in World War I into a successful political career as a Democratic North Carolina state assemblyman, criminal court judge, and state supreme court justice. In 1946 Ervin was elected to finish the remainder of his brother's term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ervin quickly gained reelection in his own right and, after four terms as a congressman, received an interim appointment to the Senate in 1954. As a congressman, Ervin strongly opposed civil rights reforms. He condemned the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and helped to draft the Southern Manifesto two years later. But Erwin carefully cloaked his opposition to desegregation in terms of his dislike of big government. He thus avoided the blatantly racist argument commonly used by other southern politicians at the time to oppose civil rights initiatives.

John C. Stennis (1901–1995) was a long-serving Mississippi senator well known for his segregationist views. Stennis was born in Kemper County, Mississippi, and graduated from Mississippi State University and the University of Virginia Law School. While still enrolled in law school, Stennis won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He pursued successful careers as a prosecutor and a circuit court judge before winning a special election to the U.S. Senate, convened following the death of Mississippi senator and die-hard segregationist Theodore Bilbo. Stennis spoke out openly against the civil rights movement and helped to draft the Southern Manifesto in 1956.

J. William Fulbright (1905–1995) was one of the most well-known, controversial figures in twentieth-century American political history. Fulbright, a native of Sumner, Mississippi, graduated from the University of Arkansas before attending Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar and obtaining a law degree from George Washington University. He began his career in public service as a Justice Department attorney. Fulbright then served as a professor and later as president of the University of Arkansas. In 1942 Fulbright was elected to Congress, where he promoted support for the eventual creation of the United Nations. In 1944 Arkansas voters elected Fulbright to the Senate, where he helped establish the Fulbright Scholar Program. Fulbright also earned a reputation as an opponent of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. Early in his career, Fulbright was a dedicated supporter of segregation. He opposed the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education but urged fellow southerners to pursue a moderate opposition to the civil rights movement. In 1956 he toned down much of the hyperbolic tone found in the first draft of the Southern Manifesto to produce a more moderate but still thoroughly pro-segregationist document.

Price Daniel (1910–1988) was a Democratic senator from Texas and early opponent of the civil rights movement. He was raised in Dayton, Texas, and obtained a law degree from Baylor University. In 1939 Daniel was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, where he gained fame as an opponent of a state sales tax. After a brief stint as speaker of the house, Daniel enlisted in the army to serve in World War II. After the war, Daniel returned to Texas and was elected state attorney general in 1946. He unsuccessfully defended the University of Texas's segregation policies in the landmark Supreme Court case of Sweatt v. Painter (1950). Although Daniel was a moderate politician in many areas, he opposed civil rights reforms and was the last leading southern senator to participate in the drafting of the Southern Manifesto in 1956.