Bilbo was an equal-opportunity hater

By KAREN PARKER

County Line Publisher Emeritus

Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo, a Democrat from Mississippi, would most likely have given a thumbs up to the 18-year-old who gunned down 10 black shoppers in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store this past weekend.

The pundits are shocked, simply shocked, at the way the “replacement theory” idea has blossomed and gained credence in this country. While it has been a cherished theory of racists and conspiracy lovers, it never gained much traction in my lifetime. The idea that blacks, immigrants or another target group will replace us and destroy the white culture now is openly discussed by elected officials and some cable news networks.

I don’t know if Native Americans subscribed to this theory, but they should have considering we did our best to wipe them and their culture off the continent. That’s a thought that never seems to occur to those who fear the ascendancy of folks who (gasp) have different color skin, language and cultural values.

But Bilbo could see the danger clearly and believed it was time to solve the problem before he was tripped on his way into the country club by some black, Islamic, Native American woman with Italian ancestry. 

It was that dream of separating out the black population that sent him all the way from a small town in Mississippi to the United States senate after serving two terms as governor. 

Bilbo was an equal-opportunity hater, often maligning Jews and Italians, but he reserved most of his loathing for black Americans, making his opinions clear in a book he wrote in 1947, “Separation or Mongrelization: Take Your Choice.”

“The great civilizations of the ages have been produce[d] by the Caucasian race,” he wrote. “When Black people moved in, mighty societies such as ancient Egypt were destroyed and mongrel races were created. The mongrel not only lacks the ability to create a civilization, but he cannot maintain a culture that he finds around him.”

Bilbo proclaimed in his book and in addresses to followers that he was “convinced, beyond every reasonable doubt, that our race is in jeopardy.” It was a fact, he said in one campaign speech, that at “the present rate of interbreeding and miscegenation and intermarriage between the n—–s and the Whites, that in nine generations, which is only 300 years, there’ll be no Whites, there’ll be no Blacks in this country. We’ll all be yellow.” Or brown, he added.

Well, I guess we will all be something. Mostly we will be dead, so who replaces us seems highly irrelevant. 

Bilbo’s solution to the problem was to gather up these black interlopers and ship them back.

As a senator, Bilbo proposed an amendment to the federal work-relief bill on June 6, 1938, which would have deported 12 million black Americans to Liberia at federal expense to relieve unemployment.

He participated in the lengthy Southern Democratic filibuster of the Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill before the Senate in 1938, during which he argued, “If you succeed in the passage of this bill, you will open the floodgates of hell in the South. Raping, mobbing, lynching, race riots, and crime will be increased a thousand fold.”

Anti-lynching bills have been introduced in Congress more than 200 times. Finally, this year, President Biden signed a bill making lynching a federal crime. 

Only three House Republicans — Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Chip Roy of Texas — voted against the bill. The legislation then passed the Senate by unanimous consent in what surely would have been a staggering disappointment to Sen. Bilbo.

In 1946, after four white men beat a black Army veteran for attempting to register to vote, Sen. Bilbo delivered a radio address urging every “red-blooded Anglo-Saxon man in Mississippi to resort to any means to keep hundreds of Negroes from the polls in the July 2nd primary.”

After years of spouting such hatred and vile sentiments, Bilbo died of oral cancer in 1947. Alas, too many of his ideas have not died.

My guess is that a history textbook cannot be found that will tell you about Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo. 

George Santayana’s often referenced quote, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” ought to be considered when we attempt to ban books, ideas such as critical race theory, and anything that challenges the idea that America has often failed to live up to its stated ideals. 

We will probably never know what this young person learned in the dark corners of the internet that led him to murder 10 innocent people. But I like to think it could have been countered by open and frank discussions in high school history class about the role of racism in America, rather than reading just a few paragraphs buried in the middle of the textbook. 

Despite his race-baiting demagoguery and his admission that he was a member of the Ki Klux Klan, a Senate Committee voted against refusing to allow Bilbo to take his senate seat. Despite more than 200 witnesses who testified that Bilbo had been behind restricting voters from voting, sometimes with threats and beatings, the Senate Committee concluded it was much ado about nothing. The fault, they concluded, was the media just stirring up trouble. 

Sound familiar? 

Comments are closed.

  • It will be a seemingly endless campaign season

    March 14th, 2024
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita I would imagine if Eric Hovde has secured any demographic in his campaign […]


    A vibrant press is essential to democracy

    March 11th, 2024
    by

    By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emerita Sadly, there was no obituary in the paper for the Vernon Focus. […]


    America’s bent toward fascism

    February 26th, 2024
    by

    Imagine living in a country where the simple act of gathering together to lay flowers after the death of a prominent person could result in a two-week jail sentence.


    In 2024, remember that politics were ugly 100 years ago, too

    February 5th, 2024
    by

    Good grief! We are barely into the new year, and I am ready to go back to 2023 or leap ahead to 2025. Are we really in for an entire year of presidential election babble?


    Looking back on our 40th year, 1983–2023 (part two)

    November 30th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita Forty years is a long time. Sadly, it’s long enough for most of […]


  • Looking back on our 40th year, 1983–2023

    November 27th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emerita Certainly one of the things that has changed a lot over 40 […]


    Private insurers insert profit-over-patient mentality into Medicare

    November 9th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher Emerita I met Dave Zweifel many years ago, at a Wisconsin Newspaper Association […]


    Does the Parents’ Rights Act ensure any new rights?

    October 12th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita It has been a curious sight last week watching the House of Representatives […]


    Medicare Advantage reflects power insurance companies have over Congress

    September 28th, 2023
    by

    By KAREN PARKER County Line Publisher Emerita If you ever had any doubt about the power insurance companies have over […]


    Celebrating Wildcat’s 75th: The Lord brothers are two intriguing figures from Ontario’s history

    September 15th, 2023
    by

    Of all the colorful and eccentric characters in local history few are as intriguing as two brothers, Ed and Charles Lord. 


    Recalling the flood of 2018

    August 31st, 2023
    by

    If there is anything good about a flood, it does force a major house cleaning. This week marks five years since the flood of 2018 that swept through Ontario, built up steam, and continued on its way to the Wisconsin and the Mississippi, leaving behind a forever-changed landscape in the towns along the Kickapoo River.


  • Archives