ISSN 0043-6534 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 61, No. 4 • Summer, 1978 y ES counkQm IT TAKES COURAGE! j^^^^H DO yo«i fAUf. '\i 'ma Ui? THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers WILLIAM HUFFMAN, President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Secretary ROGER E. AXTELL, Second Vice-President Board of Curators Ex Officio MARTIN J. SCHREIBLR, Acting Governor of the State EDWIN YOUNG, President of the University DOUGLAS J. LAFOLLFTTE, Secretary of State MRS. WADE MOSEY, President of the CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 19TJ THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR. CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON Eau Claire Fond du Lac Hubertus Appleton NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Madison Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON E. E. HOMSTAD DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Madison Wauwatosa Black River Falls Cassville Term Expires, 1980 ROGER E. AXTELL MRS. R. GOERES HAYSSEN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MiLO K. SWANTON Janesville Ean Claire Madison Madison PAUL E. HASSETT MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIC Madison Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander WILLIAM KIDD WILLIAM HUFFMAN WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Wisconsin Rapids Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 1981 JOHN ANDERSON JOHN T. HARRINGTON MRS. JEAN M. HELLIF^EN NEWELL MEYER Cable Milwaukee La Crosse Milwaukee E. DAVID CRONON MRS. R. L. HARTZELL ROBERT H. IRRMANN JOHN R. PIKE Madison Grantsburg Beloit Madison JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. WILLIAM E. HAYES MRS. HERBERT V. KOHLER, JR. CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee De Pere Koiiler Stevens Point Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary MRS. WADE MOSBY, Milwaukee, President MRS. JAMES NOYES, Madison, Treasurer MRS. DONALD R. KORST, Madison, Vice-President MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville, Ex Officio MRS. JOHN C. WILSON, JR., Milwaukee, Secretary ON THE COVER; Governor George Wallace of Alabama, standing before a statue honoring Wisconsin's Civil War dead, addresses a presidential campaign rally in Oshkosh, March 18, 1964. This photo was made by James Swanke of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. Volume 61, Number 4 / Summer, 1978 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed to members as part of their dues. (Annual member­ ship, |10, or 17.50 for those Wallace in Wisconsin: over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, The Presidential Primary of 1964 259 $12.50, or |10 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; Richard C. Haney contributing, $25; business and professional, $50; sustaining, $100 or more annually; patron, Poverty and Relief in $500 or more annually.) Single Nineteenth-Century Janesville 279 numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microfilmed John A. Fleckner copies available through University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, A Swedish Traveler in Early Wisconsin: Michigan 48106; reprints of The Observations of Fredrika Bremer 300 Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through Edited by George C. Brown 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. Book Reviews 319 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Book Review Index 331 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second- Wisconsin History Checklist 332 class postage paid at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and at Contributors 336 additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Copyright © 1978 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. PAUL H. HASS EDITOR WILLIAM C. MARTEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOHN O. HOLZHUETER ASSISTANT EDITOR James Swanke, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern Dolores Herbstreith and her husband Lloyd (far left) greet George Wallace at the Oshkosh airport, September, 1964. 258 Wallace in Wisconsin: The Presidential Primary of 1964 By Richard C. Haney .EORGE WALLACE, sporting a Liberty Amendment, who proposed abolish­ VJTifeathere d Winnebago war bon­ ing the federal income tax, supplied what net, gleefully whooped, "We won without home-grown organization he had in Wiscon­ winning!" He then did a war dance in his sin. He campaigned against the civil rights crowded headquarters room in Milwaukee's legislation then pending in Congress, and at­ Schroeder Hotel. It was election night, April tracted Democratic voters in blue-collar south 7, 1964. The governor of Alabama had just side Milwaukee who resented Governor Rey­ captured a stunning 34 per cent of the vote nolds' unsuccessful efforts to get the state in the Wisconsin Democratic presidential pri­ legislature to pass a strong open housing law mary against John Reynolds, governor of Wis­ in 1963. Many suburban Milwaukee Repub­ consin and the favorite-son stand-in for Presi­ lican voters, whose favorite-son Congressman dent Lyndon B. Johnson. Wallace had en­ John Byrnes of Green Bay was unopposed in tered the Wisconsin primary—the first he ever the primary, crossed over to Wallace as a attempted in the North—almost as an after­ means of embarrassing Reynolds. Extreme thought at the filing deadline just a month be­ rightists, such as members of the John Birch fore. In thirty hectic days, he had brought all Society, also added to the Wallace total. the drama and tensions of the Southern civil John Reynolds of Green Bay, Wisconsin, rights movement to a Midwestern state which and George Wallace of Clio, Alabama, were had a long tradition of liberality and progres- among the new governors elected in 1962. sivism. The results, like the exuberant cele­ Neither was known beyond the boundaries of bration at the Schroeder, sent a tremor his own state. When they took office, the through American politics that was to last last President felled by an assassin was Wil­ more than a decade.* liam McKinley at the turn of the century. Wallace concentrated his brief and color­ In 1962 Vietnam was a troubled former French ful Wisconsin campaign in Milwaukee and colony, not yet a bitter American emotion; the Fox River valley, though he made appear­ McHale's Navy and Sing Along With Mitch ances elsewhere. Advocates of the so-called were among the season's television hits. But the civil rights movement was in full blos­ som behind the nonviolent leadership of the 1 The war bonnet was presented to Wallace that eve­ ning by Harold Blackdeer, president of the Consolidat­ Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and with­ ed Tribes of American Indians. Milwaukee Journal, in fifteen months of assuming their governor­ April 8, 1964 (Wallace quote); Dolores Herbstreith, ships, Reynolds and Wallace would viciously tape-recorded interview, Oshkosh, September 20, 1977. oppose one another in a presidential primary All interviews cited herein were with the author. The 1966 Wisconsin Slue Book is the source for elec­ that was widely viewed as a barometer of civil tion statistics, unless otherwise noted. rights opinion in the North. Copyright @ 1978 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 259 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1978 John Reynolds, Jr., had grown up in a plants, and provided corporate tax breaks to political family. His father served as state attract new industry. He also provided strict attorney general in the 1920's, and he raised enforcement of racial segregation.^ his son to be an admirer of La Follette pro- Alabama erupted in the spring of 1963. On gressivism. With the decline of the Wiscon­ Good Friday, Martin Luther King led a civil sin Progressive party after World War II, rights demonstration in Birmingham. The youthful John Reynolds was among the hand­ city police commissioner used fire hoses, elec­ ful of men who helped to build a strong, tric cattle prods, and police dogs to disperse liberal Democratic party organization in the the marchers. A few days later, following the state. In 1958 he was elected attorney general, bombing of King's headquarters motel, black and he won re-election in 1960. In his suc­ Birmingham rioted. Governor Wallace backed cessful campaign for governor in 1962, he up city police with state troopers, their riot vigorously opposed the limited state sales tax, helmets emblazoned with Confederate flags. which the Republican candidate Philip Kuehn In early June, Assistant United States Attor­ wanted to extend.^ ney General Nicholas Katzenbach, armed with As governor, Reynolds took courageous a court order and backed by federal marshals, stands on controversial issues. He vetoed a appeared at the University of Alabama in Tus­ reapportionment bill passed by the Republi­ caloosa to register two black students, James can-controlled legislature before reaching an Hood and Vivian Malone. Governor Wal­ eventual settlement with them. He increased lace literally stood in the schoolhouse door state aid to education and to mental health in protest. As he later emphasized, Wallace facilities, deferring repeal of the sales tax to was determined to prevent an outbreak of provide the funds. He favored accelerated violence and a repeat of the rioting which highway construction. And in 1963 Reynolds occurred earlier at the University of Missis­ proposed that the legislature pass an open sippi when James Meredith had enrolled housing law to prohibit racial discrimination there. With national television covering the in real estate sales or rental. (A combination Katzenbach-Wallace confrontation, Wallace of suburban Milwaukee Republicans and defended segregation and condemned federal south side Milwaukee Democrats, the latter intervention. He then submitted to superior representing white working-class neighbor­ force, stepping aside to allow the blacks to hoods, defeated the bill in the legislature.) enter the university.