A southern Liberal, the Southern Regional Council, and the Limits of Managed Race Relations

RTD’s editorial page between November 16 and December 9, as well as more than 100 unpublished letters found in folder “1943, Segregation–columns–editorials–Voice of People–unused letters,” box 6, Virginius Dabney Papers. See also, VD to Stuart B. Gibson, Dec. 3, 1943, folder “1943 Segregation Correspondence,” box 6, Virginius Dabney Papers.

3232. “Why Only Cars and Busses?” RTD, Nov. 27, 1943, 6 (emphasis in original).

3333. LIJ to VD, Nov. 15, 1943 (first quotation), VD to LIJ, Nov. 16, 1943 (second and third quotations), folder "1927–1949 Correspondence of LIJ with VD," box 3, Louis I. Jaffé Papers (#9924–b), University of Virginia; Kneebone, Southern Liberal Journalists, 209–11; Sosna, In Search of the Silent South, 135–37.

3434. J. Saunders Redding, “Southern Defensive—I,” Common Ground 4 (Spring 1944): 36‑42; Lillian E. Smith, “Southern Defensive—II,” Common Ground 4 (Spring 1944): 43‑45 (first quotation on 44; second quotation on 45); Guy B. Johnson, “Southern Offensive—A Reply to Mr. Redding and Miss Smith,” Common Ground 4 (Summer 1944): 87‑93; M. Margaret Anderson to Virginius Dabney, January 21, 1944, VD to P. B. Young, January 31, 1944, P. B. Young to VD, February 1, 1944, M. Margaret Anderson to P. B. Young, February 4, 1944, Howard Odum to VD, February 4, 1944, VD to P. B. Young, February 12, 1944, Gordon Blaine Hancock to M. Margaret Anderson, May 6, 1944, all in folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, 1943‑44,” box 8, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690).

3535. VD to George Watts Hill, May 3, 1945 (quotations), folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, Pt. II,” box 4, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690-a); Kneebone, Southern Liberal Journalists, 206–14; Gavins, Perils and Prosperity, 148–57; Sosna, In Search of the Silent South, 152–63; Hall, Revolt Against Chivalry, 255–66.

3636. VD to Francis Bridges, January 4, 1945, folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, Pt. II,” box 4, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690-a).

3737. VD to George Watts Hill, May 3, 1945, folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, Pt. II,” box 4, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690-a).

3838. VD to Jessie Daniel Ames, July 12, 1945, folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, Pt. II,” box 4, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690-a).

3939. VD, “Is The South That Bad?” Saturday Review of Literature 29 (April 13, 1946): 9–10, 84–88; President’s Committee on Civil Rights, To Secure These Rights, 139–73 (quotations on 166); Nitschke, “Virginius Dabney of Virginia,” 182–84; Sosna, In Search of the Silent South, 149–52.

4040. RTD, March 7, 1948, 1, 4 (quotation), cited in J. Douglas Smith, “’When Reason Collides With Prejudice,’” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 102 (January 1994): 8–9. Tuck’s bill ultimately failed and Truman carried Virginia in the November election. The president, however, lost five southern states to the Dixiecrat candidate, Strom Thurmond. On the Dixiecrats, see Kari Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt.

4141. GBH to VD, Nov. 15, 1948, cited in Gavins Perils and Prosperity, 157 (quotation); Andrew B. Lewis, “Wandering in Two Worlds” (Ph.D. diss.: University of Virginia, 2000); “Mixed School Classes Held Possible in Gloucester, King George Under Court’s Ruling,” RNL, July 30, 1948, section B, 1–2; “We Must Pay For Separate Schools,” RNL, Aug. 6, 1948, 10; Doxey A. Wilkerson, “The Negro School Movement in Virginia,” Journal of Negro Education 29 (Winter 1960): 20–24; Virginia Educational Commission, The Virginia Public School System (Richmond: Division of Purchase and Printing, 1944).

4242. Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950).

4343. Kluger, Simple Justice, especially 451–507; Wilkerson, “The Negro School Movement in Virginia,” 24–29; Andrew B. Lewis, “Wandering in Two Worlds.”

4444. Colgate Darden’s testimony in Dorothy E. Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, in Mark Hamer, “A Modest Forward Step: Colgate W. Darden and the School Desegregation Crisis” (B.A. thesis: University of Virginia, 1988), 54–69; Kluger, Simple Justice, 480–507.

4545. “Toward the South of the Future,” New South 6 (Dec. 1951): 1–2 (quotation on 2), copy on frames 349–50, reel 217, Southern Regional Council Papers (microfilm); John Egerton, Speak Now Against The Day (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), 523–69; Kneebone, Southern Liberal Journalists, 211–20; Sosna, In Search of the Silent South, 162–69; Gavins, Perils and Prosperity, 158–60.

4646. Colgate Darden to George S. Mitchell, July 25, 1953 (quotations), frames 617‑618, reel 12, Southern Regional Council Papers (microfilm). I am indebted to Paul M. Gaston for bringing Darden’s letter to my attention.

4747. VD, “Virginia’s ‘Peaceable, Honorable Stand,” Life 45 (Sept. 22, 1958): 51‑52, 55‑56 (first and third quotations on 52; second and fourth quotations on 56); Kneebone, Southern Liberal Journalists, 220‑22. On massive resistance, see Numan Bartley, Rise of Massive Resistance; Lassiter and Andrew Lewis, Moderates’ Dilemma; Robbins Gates, Making of Massive Resistance; Benjamin Muse, Virginia’s Massive Resistance; J. Harvie Wilkinson, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, chapter 5; Ronald Heinemann, Harry Byrd of Virginia, chapter 17.

4848. VD to George S. Mitchell, April 5, 1956, folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, Inc., 1948‑1958,” box 25, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690-M).

4949. Ibid.

5050. VD to George Mitchell, January 29, 1952, folder entitled “Southern Regional Council, Inc., 1948‑1958,” box 25, Virginius Dabney Papers (#7690-M). On Dabney and his embrace of the Byrd Organization in the 1950s, see Sosna, In Search of the Silent South, 166‑169.

5151. Benjamin Muse, “Confidential Memorandum: Governor Harrison on the Prince Edward Problem, Also Virginius Dabney,” July 2, 1962, frames 1428‑1430, reel 56, Southern Regional Council Papers (microfilm); Sosna, In Search of the Silent South, 226, note 4 (quotations). On the closing of the Prince Edward County schools, see Amy E. Murrell, “The ‘Impossible’ Prince Edward Case: The Endurance of Resistance in a Southside County, 1959‑1964,” in Lassiter and Andrew B. Lewis, eds., Moderates’ Dilemma, chapter 5.

5252. VD, Virginius Dabney's Virginia, xviii–xix.