Quotes From Dead Racists

Just because these racists are now all dead doesn’t mean they didn’t shape this nation. Some were Governors and led states; others were members of Congress or led organizations with significant influence. While all these people have passed along, none were that long ago. Some held power during my lifetime, and their policies still hold sway. Food for thought!

WILLIAM RAINACH

(1913–1978)

STATE LEGISLATOR, LOUISIANA

“I do not believe the two societies should mix.”

William Rehnquist

(1924–2005)

Chief Justice United States Supreme Court

“I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by ‘liberal’ colleagues, but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be re-affirmed.”

VIRGINIA JOHNSON

(1928–2007)

POLITICIAN, ARKANSAS

“I’m a segregationist. Aren’t we all?”

OLIN D. JOHNSTON

(1896–1965)

GOVERNOR, U.S. SENATOR, SOUTH CAROLINA

“I don’t run from niggers, but I run them from me.”

HORATIO SEYMOUR

(1810–1886)

GOVERNOR, NEWYORK

“This is a white man’s country: Let white men rule.”

THEODORE BILBO

(1877–1947)

GOVERNOR, U.S. SENATOR, MISSISSIPPI

“It is essential to the perpetuation of our Anglo-Saxon civilization that white supremacy be maintained and to maintain our civilization there is only one solution, and that is either by segregation within the United States or by the deportation of the entire Negro race.”

BOB JONES

(1883–1968)

EVANGELIST, SOUTH CAROLINA

“If we would just listen to the Word of God and not try to overthrow God’s established order, we would not have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the line between the nations. That was not God’s purpose for this nation.”

ORVAL FAUBUS

(1910–1994)

GOVERNOR, ARKANSAS

“I will never open the public schools as integrated institutions.”

JACK GREMILLION

(1914–2001)

ATTORNEY GENERAL, LOUISIANA

“I have fought integration with all the talent and vigor I possess.”

MRS. J.E. ANDREWS

PRESIDENT, WOMEN’S NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE WHITE RACE, GEORGIA

“All we need to do is to insist that the Negro get back in line.”

EUGENE TALMADGE

(1888–1946)

GOVERNOR, GEORGIA

“The South loves the Negro in his place but his place is at the back door.”

EUGENE “BULL” CONNOR

(1897–1973)

PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR, BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

“All you gotta do is tell them you’re going to bring the dogs. Look at ’em run. Bring the dogs anyway, captain.”

GEORGE WALLACE

(1919–1998)

GOVERNOR, ALABAMA

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny … and I say … segregation now … segregation tomorrow … segregation forever.”

LESTER MADDOX

(1915–2003)

GOVERNOR, GEORGIA

“If necessary, we should close our schools for a month or a year or two years. It would be better to do that and have free children than slave children.”

ALLAN ELLENDER

(1890–1972)

U.S. SENATOR, LOUISIANA

“It is a sad spectacle, to say the least, and it leads one to the inevitable conclusion that up to now the Negro race has not shown itself capable of effective self-government.”

JAMES O. EASTLAND

(1904–1986)

U.S. SENATOR, MISSISSIPPI

“Those who would mix little children of both races in our schools are following an illegal, immoral, and sinful doctrine….”

JOHN STENNIS

(1901–1995)

U.S. SENATOR, MISSISSIPPI

“We are not going to comply with the Supreme Court decision of putting whites and Blacks together, but the least we advertise that fact, the better.”

WILLIS MCCALL

(1909–1994)

SHERIFF, LAKE COUNTY, FLORIDA

“Get those niggers out of school.”

JAMES F. BYRNES

(1882–1972)

U.S. SENATOR, GOVERNOR, SOUTH CAROLINA ASSOCIATE JUSTICE, U.S. SUPREME

“This is a white man’s country, and will always remain a white man’s country.”

HARRY BYRD

(1887–1966)

U.S. SENATOR, VIRGINIA

“The order to desegregate public schools has brought Virginia to its greatest crisis since the war between the states.”

JIM CLARK

(1922–2007)

SHERIFF, DALLAS COUNTY, ALABAMA

“Our niggers are gettin’ along all right. They wouldn’t be no problem if Martin Luther King and his Communists would get outta here.”

LEANDER PEREZ

(1891–1969)

JUDGE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, LOUISIANA

“Don’t wait for your daughters to be raped by these Congolese. Don’t wait until the burr-heads are forced into your schools. Do something about it now.”

ALLAN SHIVERS

(1907–1985)

GOVERNOR, TEXAS

“Segregation in Texas will continue as long as I am governor.”

JAMES J. KILPATRICK

(1920–2010)

JOURNALIST, WRITER, SPEAKER, VIRGINIA

“There are respected Negro teachers, lawyers, doctors, writers. Of course, there are. But in general terms, where is the Negro to be found? Why, sir, he is still carrying the hod. He is still digging the ditch. He is down at the gin mill shooting craps. He is lying limp in the middle of the sidewalk, yelling he is equal. The hell he is equal.”

ROSS BARNETT

(1898–1987)

GOVERNOR, MISSISSIPPI

“There is no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived social integration. We will not drink from the cup of genocide.”

STROM THURMOND

(1902–2003)

U.S. SENATOR, SOUTH CAROLINA

“All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, into our schools, our churches and our places of recreation and amusement.”

JIM JOHNSON

(1924–2010)

STATE SENATOR, STATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE , ARKANSAS

“I don’t care how many court rulings are handed down or how many troops are sent into our state. We shall not surrender our sovereign rights and reserved powers to govern and control our state institutions.”

HERMAN TALMADGE

(1913–2002)

GOVERNOR, U.S. SENATOR, GEORGIA

“There aren’t enough troops in the whole United States to make the white people of this state send their children to school with colored children.”

JESSE HELMS

(1921–2008)

U.S. SENATOR, NORTH CAROLINA

“The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that’s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men’s rights.”

SAM ENGELHARDT

(1912–1991)

STATE SENATOR, STATE HIGHWAY DIRECTOR, ALABAMA

“I have worked Negroes on the plantation for years and have never had a bit of trouble with any of them. I know what is best for them… Our sole purpose is to maintain segregation. That’s what we intend to do.”

I. BEVERLY LAKE

(1906–1996)

STATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, NORTH CAROLINA

“If we must choose between a generation of inferior education and the amalgamation of our races into a mix-blooded whole, let us choose inferior education since that is an evil which another generation can correct, while miscegenation is a tragedy which can never be undone.”

THOMAS PICKENS BRADY

(1903–1973)

STATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, MISSISSIPPI

“You can dress a chimpanzee, housebreak him, and teach him to use a knife and fork, but it will take countless generations of evolutionary development, if ever, before you can convince him that a caterpillar or a cockroach is not a delicacy. Likewise the social, political, economical, and religious preferences of the Negro remain close to the caterpillar and the cockroach….”

Without checking, I don’t doubt that most of these people were Democrats. That really isn’t the issue, as the bulk of recent comments now come from Republicans. The point is that racism is systemic, built it by people represented here; Governors, Congressmen, State Supreme Court Justices, religious leaders, and Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. Every American major institution has a history of racism; the only question remaining is, “Has it been rooted out?”

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This post was previously published on The Polis.

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