[Item #21766] South Carolina Republican Party. Rodney E. GOULD.

South Carolina Republican Party

ca. 1966. Quarto (28cm.); [2],28,[1] loose mimeographed leaves; numerous removed staple stabs to upper left-hand corner; shallow tears along edge of first leaf, one large tear to left-hand edge of leaf 25 affecting text without loss of meaning; occasional neat manuscript corrections throughout, possibly in Gould's hand. Very Good overall.

A history of the still-youthful and struggling South Carolina Republican Party, apparently written by a liberal, (mostly) pro-integrationist, yet sympathetic outsider. The Party, not to be confused with the earlier Negro Republican Party, was approved by the Credentials Committee at the 1956 Republican Convention in San Francisco, thus making the Negro Republican Party illegitimate. The author gives reasonable explanations for why this new Party has been so slow in gaining popularity, with special emphasis on the Voter Legislation Law and the race issue: "Republican leadership maintains its attitude that absolutely nothing can be done to woo the Negro into the Republican camp because the Negro prefers welfare and the dole, to honest labour." Gould takes great pains to stress that white South Carolinians do not hate black people, while simultaneously listing the general belief that "To them [the white South Carolinians] the Negro race is one of slothfulness, dirtyness and welfare. They live in run-down shanties because they desire it--they cut up the front steps to make firewood as they are too lazy to cut some wood nearby...they feign illness and crowd the hospitals with imaginary or minor ailments. They never pay their bills...Instead they buy a new Cadillac...They don't believe in marriage." In a personal note at the end of this essay the author refutes these prejudices, giving the opinion that the inferior educational system is, in fact, the root of the problem, but is cautious about supporting 50%-50% integration.

Among the South Carolina statesmen who assisted in the composition of this essay are Drake Edens, the "father" of the SCRP; Floyd Spence (here misspelled "Spense"), who was voted into the Senate in 1966, making him the first Republican in either house of legislature since 1902; and R. Cooper White, the future mayor of Greenville, SC (1969-1971).

This essay appears to be unrecorded.

Price: $250.00

Go Back