Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Black-White Conflict (2)
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While the federal government stuck to a policy of non-intervention, the southern state governments deployed police to crack down on the protesters.
“Who are these commie bastards getting orders from to stir up all this trouble?”
In those days, anyone opposing the government was automatically labeled a commie.
But the protesters didn’t back down.
What started with 100,000 grew to 200,000, then 300,000, and kept swelling.
Even whites who had crossed racial lines to stand in solidarity with the blacks joined in.
As the crowds exploded in size, the police could no longer contain them like before.
“With our police force, we can’t handle these commies anymore. We need backup.”
“What backup? Everyone else is at their limit too.”
It became common for police to be overwhelmed and pushed back by the sheer numbers.
For a moment, the southern states were cowed by the blacks’ momentum.
“Governor, it doesn’t look like the police can handle this.”
But southern politicians who had pushed segregation policies weren’t the type to fold at this level.
Police not enough?
Then call out the military.
“Deploy the National Guard.”
The southern governors didn’t hesitate to mobilize their state National Guards.
“The army! The army’s here!”
The protesters were stunned to see the military roll in.
The moment the National Guard hit the scene, they started driving the protesters off the streets.
“These commie sons of bitches. Things are chaotic enough already, and now they’re trying to overthrow the country from within?”
The troops fired tear gas to suppress the crowds.
At first, this kind of crackdown worked well.
But humans are animals capable of learning.
Before long, crowds armed with masks coughed through the tear gas’s stinging fumes but held their ground on the streets.
“Don’t silence our legitimate voices.”
The National Guard had no choice but to resort to force.
“Clear them out.”
Dozens were injured as the troops pushed the protesters off the streets.
It wasn’t so much that the National Guard deliberately went for a bloody suppression; it was more a tragedy born from their lack of training in this sort of thing.
“If they really saw us as citizens of this country, they couldn’t do this. You butcher bastards!”
The casualties from the National Guard clearing the streets enraged the blacks.
“We should’ve been claiming our rights with violence, not nonviolence. Give them back what the whites have done to us! Why do we always have to take it lying down!”
As a result, instead of moderate Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X—the revolutionary from the Nation of Islam—took the microphone.
“If the whites do evil, return evil upon them. If they speak with guns, answer with guns. That’s the only way we’ll earn respect.”
The moment the radicals seized the stage, the masses swung toward violent protests.
“Malcolm X is right. The only way to earn respect from whites is to show we have the power to blow their heads off! Violence demands violence in return—that’s just manners!”
Before long, the black-white conflict reached an extreme.
Rage and flames erupted fiercely.
“Smash it all! Burn everything! We have to show the whites our fury!”
Molotov cocktails and tear gas flew through the streets, cars and homes were looted or set ablaze.
Some black soldiers even deserted the National Guard to join the protesters.
Clashes between both sides made the TV news several times a day.
“Is this really happening in our America? Not Eastern Europe?”
Americans who had savored the sweet taste of peace were horrified by the violence on their screens.
“If this keeps up, the country’s going to split in two. What the hell is the White House doing?”
A sense of crisis gripped everyone, fearing the outbreak of civil war.
Nothing like this had rocked the U.S. since the Civil War.
As the situation worsened, voices of concern grew louder in the federal government too.
“Mr. President, if we let the states keep deploying their National Guards like this, it’ll just amplify the conflict.”
Hearing his advisors’ counsel, Stevenson realized he couldn’t ignore the crisis any longer.
“But how do we resolve this mess?”
“For starters, you need to order the National Guard to withdraw.”
After agonizing deliberation, the president issued orders to the southern National Guard commanders.
“Withdraw your National Guard units to base. This is an order from your commander-in-chief.”
At Stevenson’s command, the National Guard immediately returned to barracks.
The governors spat curses at the president, calling it a betrayal of the South.
“Stevenson, you’ve just betrayed the sons of the South!”
While the governors vented their rage, the crowds cheered their hard-won victory.
“Showing the whites our strength was the most effective move after all.”
“Malcolm X wasn’t wrong about a single thing. Death to the whites!”
The protesters took up the radicals’ chants.
Amid the escalating anti-segregation protests, Stevenson overrode his segregationist vice president’s objections and declared his opposition to racial separation.
It was his attempt, in his own way, to calm the blacks.
“Segregation policies contradict the values of freedom and equality in the United States. I urge state governments to revise them.”
But Stevenson’s concessions fell far short of placating the blacks.
The blacks no longer sought just the end of segregation.
The protesters demanded full equality with whites.
“End discrimination! We want the same citizenship as whites! Not second-class status!”
As the black protests showed no signs of dying down, the Stevenson administration grew uneasy.
“Look at their demands. Give them an inch, and they take a mile.”
“Mr. President, you still need to negotiate.”
“What? Any more concessions, and our party’s finished.”
Stevenson could no longer accommodate the blacks’ demands.
It exceeded what the Democrats could stomach.
Even if Stevenson wanted to yield, the southern governors would oppose it.
Forcing them down would require federal troops, and Stevenson lacked the political capital for that.
With no compromise in sight between the two sides, America’s turmoil showed no end.
“End segregation! Abolish racial discrimination!”
The street protests raged on unabated.
No, even as the year changed, their rallies continued.
With racial conflict emerging as such a grave political and social issue, the leading politicians preparing for the 1956 election could no longer ignore it.
Issues like Indochina or ideological clashes with the Soviets were shoved aside in an instant.
It felt like a return to isolationist times.
McCarthy quickly read the room and changed his tune.
Yesterday’s McCarthy was an anti-communist warrior; today, he was a champion of freedom.
“Racial discrimination in the land of the free, the United States of justice? Since when has this country discriminated based on ethnicity or origin?”
Of course, from the founding, Native Americans and blacks hadn’t been treated as people, but there was no need to dwell on such inconvenient truths.
What good would it do to bring up the days when Irish were treated like white niggers?
“Run the country like that, and we can’t even beat the commies. Even those commies don’t discriminate by skin color.”
McCarthy knew nothing but commies from start to finish, but that simplicity made it easy for the masses to grasp.
“A country worse than the commies? What a disgrace.”
Americans hated commies so much that they couldn’t bear falling behind them.
Lose to anyone else, but not to the commies.
By hitting that exact nerve, McCarthy instilled in the public the righteousness of ending discrimination.
“We have proud Founding Fathers, men incomparable to the likes of Lenin or Stalin. Should we let ourselves be outdone by commies?”
“No way!”
“Then act on it. Punish the Stevenson administration—worse than commies—with your vote. Only then will this country change.”
McCarthy landed one final blow on the Stevenson administration.
In truth, the Republicans had reaped massive political gains from Tuskegee and the ensuing racial strife.
The Stevenson administration had lost its momentum and was adrift; the Democrats’ unity was half-broken.
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition was now a ghost.
In contrast, the Republicans were more united than ever.
It was the perfect chance to end the Democratic monopoly on power held by Roosevelt, Truman, and Stevenson.
‘No doubt the Republicans will win this election.’
In this atmosphere, the GOP had no thoughts of bringing in some fresh outsider as their presidential nominee.
The Democrats, meanwhile, plunged into despair.
“This is all President Stevenson’s fault!”
The party became convinced that nominating Stevenson would lead to an unprecedented rout.
“If you have any conscience, don’t run in the election!”
Faced with the party’s fierce backlash, incumbent President Stevenson had no choice but to announce he wouldn’t seek re-election.
“If that’s what the party wants, I won’t run.”
For a president who had dreamed of a second term, it was a bitter retreat.
But it was all self-inflicted.
Ignoring Tuskegee and standing by during the racial conflict were both on Stevenson.
After his withdrawal declaration, the Stevenson administration lost all momentum.
The power to steer America now passed to the contenders vying for the next presidency.
Korea and the Soviet Union began paying close attention to these presidential hopefuls.
‘Who will be America’s next leader?’