The Georgia Election–Its Meaning, p. 9
Dublin Core
Title
The Georgia Election–Its Meaning, p. 9
Description
"The news from Georgia of Herman Tallmadge’s [sic] victory in the race for retiring Sen. Walter F. George’s seat, was no unexpected nor was it cause for Fourth of July jubilation even for some of the native sons who have good reason to view with alarm the primary results in their state.
While he calls his nomination “Georgia’s battle cry to preserve state “rights” and campaigned on that issue with the frantic passion typical of Klansmen, Talmadge has boasted that once seated in the United States senate his voice will carry enough weight to array a mighty legislation force against the judiciary. That is the obsession with which he is beset. He thinks himself commissioned by God to work toward curbing the constitutional competence of the Supreme Court.
How well and how far he will succeed in his satanic conspiracy to reverse the national trend toward atonement for sins committed against the Negro, we do not know. But we do know that his election to Congress will make him one of the most dangerous demagogues ever to join the forces of evil in the upper house.
Close to 100,000 popular votes were cast against him by an intelligent segment of the Georgia electorate whose ballots, ostensibly, reflect their apprehension of a postponement of the event of a new day of enlightenment in Georgia.
To be sure, attacks on the Court will grow more intense and bitter as more Southerners of the stamp of Herman Talmadge are elected to Congress. This is just as true a proposition as any Euclidean geometry can ever prove. What appears a distressing outlook is the bald fact that liberal Southerners are yet too few in number to effect political changes of any appreciable dimensions. The unwashed and ungodly reactionaries outnumber them 20 to 1; in some places 100 to 1.
We who clamor for observance of civil liberties and rights, must not shut our eyes to the ugly possibility that with less liberal Justices in its composition, the Court will be, ipso facto, less liberal. And, what is a more fearful foreboding is that such a Court, in time, may reverse itself on many of the constitutional issues with which our welfare is bound up. These are unpleasant contemplations, we must therefore labor with dedication against the dawning of such a day."
While he calls his nomination “Georgia’s battle cry to preserve state “rights” and campaigned on that issue with the frantic passion typical of Klansmen, Talmadge has boasted that once seated in the United States senate his voice will carry enough weight to array a mighty legislation force against the judiciary. That is the obsession with which he is beset. He thinks himself commissioned by God to work toward curbing the constitutional competence of the Supreme Court.
How well and how far he will succeed in his satanic conspiracy to reverse the national trend toward atonement for sins committed against the Negro, we do not know. But we do know that his election to Congress will make him one of the most dangerous demagogues ever to join the forces of evil in the upper house.
Close to 100,000 popular votes were cast against him by an intelligent segment of the Georgia electorate whose ballots, ostensibly, reflect their apprehension of a postponement of the event of a new day of enlightenment in Georgia.
To be sure, attacks on the Court will grow more intense and bitter as more Southerners of the stamp of Herman Talmadge are elected to Congress. This is just as true a proposition as any Euclidean geometry can ever prove. What appears a distressing outlook is the bald fact that liberal Southerners are yet too few in number to effect political changes of any appreciable dimensions. The unwashed and ungodly reactionaries outnumber them 20 to 1; in some places 100 to 1.
We who clamor for observance of civil liberties and rights, must not shut our eyes to the ugly possibility that with less liberal Justices in its composition, the Court will be, ipso facto, less liberal. And, what is a more fearful foreboding is that such a Court, in time, may reverse itself on many of the constitutional issues with which our welfare is bound up. These are unpleasant contemplations, we must therefore labor with dedication against the dawning of such a day."
Creator
N/A
Publisher
The Chicago Defender
Date
1956-9-29
Collection
Citation
N/A, “The Georgia Election–Its Meaning, p. 9,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 29, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/38.