This booklet from the Southern Conference for Human Welfare identifies many of the discriminatory laws and practices that Southern states used to prevent Black people from voting. While targeting African-Americans, these measures also kept many poor White people from the polls. Women were among those disfranchised in both groups and prominent among those who continued the struggle to gain the vote.
The pamphlet provides an opportunity to contribute money to the Southern Conference for Human Welfare and to send copies to others.
Transcript
LOOK SOUTHWARD ANGEL!
* THE SOUTH – thirteen states constituting the nation's greatest reservoir of human and natural resources
AND — from Thomas Jefferson to Hugo Black , a liberal heritage of truly democratic thinking and speaking for the good of all people. BUT...
VOTING RESTRICTIONS
- the poll tax—
- "white primaries"—
- inaccessibility of polls —
- restrictive registration hours —
- and other more subtle restrictions against voting —
have long stifled a free, democratic vote for people in the southern states.
WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS?
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- more than two people outside the South had to vote in 1944 to get the same representation in Congress as one voter in the South —
HEALTH PROBLEMS
- income level far below the national minimum for living at "health and decency" standards —
- lack of doctors, nurses, public health, hospital and clinical facilities —
- bad sanitation and housing —
- vitamin deficient diets —
combine to make the South, one-third of the nation, a backward region cannot and does not hold its ills within its borders.
WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS?
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- 40% more rejections from military service in the South than in the rest of the nation – 8 of the 9 states with highest maternity death rate, in the South – its tuberculosis death rate 33% higher —
INDUSTRY
- artificially limited market and low wage standards —
- economy unbalanced between industry and agriculture —
- lack of planning for full utilization of wartime-acquired skill, plants, surplus properties —
- a "tradition" away from full and fair employment —
- distrust of union organization —
keep the South in a colony condition — make her people and her resources suffer from a lack of independence —
WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS?
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AGRICULTURE
- archaic farming methods, resulting in low production and income, erosion of land —
- continuance of "cash crop" (cotton and tobacco) system making farmers dependent for everyday needs —
- inadequate farm credit program – with interest ranging up to 40%
- tenant and sharecropper suystem tying the majority of farmers to the few —
so that the South, though it has one-half the nation's farmers and one-third its farm lands, has only one-fourth the farm income. Its farm worker gets half the average income he would outside the South —
WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS?
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- 2/3 of the South's cash income is from cotton and tobacco, therefore 4/5 of all southern farmer eat and wear must come from outside the region-converstion to vegetable, wheat, peanut and dair farming could save the people, save the land —
AND THERE ARE MORE PROBLEM —
many more, to be solved in the South – she must have better housing, rural and urban – she needs more great productive works such as TVA – her educational standards must be raised – her people need protection of their civil rights – there must be more than "the southern tradition" and the smell of magnolias to insure her young men war veterans' return, her people's staying on a land which bulges with enough potential wealth and good living to assure her the legend, "THE SOUTH – THE NATION'S NUMBER ONE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY!"
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- more than 1 our of 5 of the South's soldiers will not return to that region, according to an Army survey. The South lacking advantages but not opportunities, cannot hold its most valuable asset – youth – unless the opportunity to opportunities is opened!
OPPORTUNITIES CAN BE REALIZED!
Liberal people of the South recognizing these problems and wanting to do something about them, are speaking out now, in the voice of the SOUTHERN CONFERENCE FOR HUMAN WELFARE – they are getting support and financial help from friends of the South throughout the country – but they need more help – to continue to organize, to increase their educational activities, to accelerate their program of presenting issues of the day through more publications, field workers, press services —
The Southern Conference membership is made up of leaders from all fields throughout the South —
OFFICERS OF THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
Honorary PresidentsDr. Frank P. Graham
Judge Louise Charlton
President Clark Howell Foreman
Secretary-Treasurer Alva W. Taylor
Executive Secretary James A. Dombrowski
Vice-PresidentsPaul R. Christopher
Rosecoe Dungee
Mrs. Clifford Durr
Bishop Paul B. Kern
William Mitch
Hollis V. Reid
National offices: 507 Presbyterian Bldg.
Nashville—3—Tennessee
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THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE FOR HUMAN WELFARE
- knows that there is in the South a large reservoir of progressive thought awaiting the call to action by just such an organization, which advocates:
- a higher standard of living for all, through greater industrialization and a guarantee of full and fair employment—through extensive federal programs for public health, housing, social security and education—
- true democracy in the South: abolition of the poll tax and other restrictions on the vote —abolition of all discrimination on account of race, creed or color at the ballot box, on the job and before the courts of justice—
- the right of labor to organize and the practice of collective bargain-ing as an expression of democracy in economic life—
- encouragement of diversified farming — extension of federal aid to farmers — retention and strengthening rehabilitation and other programs for helping tenant, sharecropper and small farmer—
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT THESE THINGS?
By contributing to the WASHINGTON COMMITTEE of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare you
1. Give support to the organization in the South, and
2. Join in the Committee's own activities:
- acting as a legislative arm and information liaison between the southern membership and Washington
- supporting local undertakings related to the national aims and objectives of the Southern Conference
- providing a meeting ground for the southerners in the Nation's Capital, making it possible for them to continue their work for and interest in their home communities
- clarifying to Washington and Washingtonians the work which can be done in the South, and enlisting their support as members and contributors.
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Washington Committee Executive Board
PHILIP G. HAMMER,
President
WILLIAM H. HASTIE,
Vice-President
CONSTANCE DANIEL,
Treasurer
MADELINE DONNER,
Secretary
BETTY WILSON,
Executive Sec'y
RUTH CUTLER
VIRGINIA DURR
MARSHALL HARRIS
AL SMITH
CARMELITE SMITH
Headquarters:
935 G Place N. W.
Washington-I-D. C.
Telephone: EXecutive 0762
[dotted lint to indicate section is to be cut out]
Washington Committee, SOUTHERN CONFERENCE FOR HUMAN WELFARE: 935 G Place, N. W.—Washington–I–D. C.
(Please make out checks as above)
I AM ENCLOSING $..........AS MY
1. CONTRIBUTION * ..........
(Monthly — Quarterly — Yearly —)
2. MEMBERSHIP, AT $2.00 ..........
(Including subscription to monthly Southern Patriot)
3. SUBSCRIPTION TO SOUTHERN PATRIOT AT $1.00 A YEAR ..........
NAME ....................
ADDRESS ....................
* Unless otherwise indicated, tax exemption will not be claimed.
Please send copies of this pamphlet to names I am listing on enclosed sheet.
"It is my conviction that the South presents right now the Nation's No. 1 economic problem—the nation's, not merely the South's. For we have an economic unbalance in the nation as a whole, due to this very condition of the South."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a message to the Conference on Economic Conditions of the South ...
July 4, 1938.