- Collection:
- Solomon Blatt: In His Own Words
- Title:
- Correspondence between I. DeQuincey Newman and Solomon Blatt
- Creator:
- Blatt, Solomon, 1896-1986
- Contributor to Resource:
- Newman, I. DeQuincy, 1911-1985
- Publisher:
- Columbia, S.C. : University of South Carolina. South Carolina Political Collections
- Date of Original:
- 1964-08-13
- Subject:
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. South Carolina State Conference
- People:
- Newman, I. DeQuincy, 1911-1985
Blatt, Solomon, 1896-1986 - Location:
- United States, South Carolina, 34.00043, -81.00009
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- image/jpeg
- Description:
- On August 7, 1964, Blatt received a spurious NAACP membership card in the mail. He then wrote I. DeQuincey Newman, state executive director of the NAACP, informing him that he did not wish to join the organization. Although the NAACP had had a strong presence in South Carolina since 1936, Blatt considered it to be an outside agitation group. Neither Newman nor anyone else at the NAACP appears to have written the letter, and Newman strongly asserts that he does not care about Blatt's opinions on the NAACP. These letters point to a period in South Carolina politics during which many segregationists began to abandon the Democratic Party for the Republicans because they disagreed with the national Democratic Party's stance on civil rights. African Americans voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates. Nevertheless, Blatt states flatly the he does "not consider the Democratic Party to be the colored man's party." Like many white politicians of his time, Blatt believed that overt support for a civil rights agenda would be electoral suicide. Beginning in the 1970s, however, he often reached out to African American voters and political leaders.
- Metadata URL:
- http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/sblatt/id/270
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/iiif/2/sblatt:270/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright Not Evaluated. For further information please contact the University of South Carolina, South Carolina Political Collections, Columbia, SC 29208.
- Original Collection:
- Solomon Blatt: In His Own Words
From Solomon Blatt Papers, Public Papers, Topical. Located in South Carolina Political Collections. - Contributing Institution:
- South Caroliniana Library
- Rights:
-
