General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Ed Schultz EXPOSES Cause Of Racism In The South [View all]DinahMoeHum
(21,789 posts). . .when many of them were factory and mill workers.
In contrast, the black churches played a critical role in the civil rights struggles and victories in the last 50 years.
I came across an essay a few years back regarding the ruthless suppression of the Chiquola mill strike in Honea Path, SC, back in the 1930's.
http://www.salon.com/2010/09/07/southern_labor_history/
(snip)
The basic tenets of 20th-century progressive politics in America unionism, the welfare state, public-safety regulations all failed the mill-hands, the largest class of industrial workers in the South. And the failure was spectacular, a once-in-a-generation trauma. The inability of New Deal liberalism to bring on board the Southern white working class was, it seems in retrospect, its ultimate undoing. Who was it that voted for Wallace, then Nixon, then Reagan? The depressing question points to the politically weak people for whom racism was the only bullet left in the chamber. We cant excuse their racism this way. But we can start to understand it.
(snip)
"politically weak people"
In effect, having been crushed and broken so many times, Southern white workers chose to internalize their pain and have made their deals with the devil.
I'm afraid it's going to take white folks themselves in the South to finally overthrow the GOP's death grip on their towns and states.