Georgia Historical Society "The Sad Duty of Politics": Jimmy Carter and the Issue of Race in His 1970 Gubernatorial Campaign Author(s): Randy Sanders Reviewed work(s): Source: The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Fall 1992), pp. 612-638 Published by: Georgia Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40582593 . Accessed: 05/07/2012 11:39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Georgia Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Georgia Historical Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org "The Sad Dutyof Politics": JimmyCarter and theIssue of Race in His 1970 GubernatorialCampaign By Randy Sanders Carter'scampaign for Georgia's governorshiphas Jimmyremained virtually from its inception more than a littlepuzzl- ing, and even somewhatmysterious. The puzzlementfelt by Carter'spolitical opponents and by astuteobservers from the beginningof the campaignspread to the widerGeorgia and nationalpublic at his inauguration."I say to you quite frankly thatthe time for racial discrimination is over," he declared."Our people have alreadymade thismajor and difficultdecision. No poor, rural,weak or black person should ever have to bear theadditional burden of beingdeprived of theopportunity for an education,a job, or simplejustice."1 In itselfsuch a pronouncementwas notextraordinary, even when made by a southernpolitician. Similar statements were beingmade bya numberof southerngovernors elected around the same time.Many had even campaignedon thatnote. But JimmyCarter had not.To manyit seemedthat, at best,he had equivocatedon theracial issue, and at worst,he had pandered outrightto racism.Little wonder that manyof the 339,000 Georgianswho had votedfor him listened to his words in amaze- ment.2 ■JimmyCarter, A Governmentas Good as Its People (New York, 1977), 14. 2There are several good accounts of Carters 1970 campaign. JimmyCarters au- tobiographicalWhy Not theBest? (Nashville, 1975), containsa shortbut revealingchapter on 1970. The most detailed accounts of the 1970 campaign are from the following works: Leslie Wheeler,Jimmy Who? An Examinationof Presidential Candidate Jimmy Carter: The Man, His Career,His Standson theIssues (New York, 1976), 45-61; Reg Murphy and Hal Gulliver, The SouthernStrategy (New York, 1971), 173-97; and Betty Glad, Jimmy Carter:In Searchof the Great White House (New York, 1980), 123-40. Bill Shipp, political editor of the AtlantaConstitution in 1970, had contactswithin the Carter campaign and wrote a revealing account which ran in the AtlantaConstitution as a four-partseries, November 8-11, 1970, entitled "How He Won It." For an illuminatinginsight into Mr. Sanders is a doctoral candidate in historyat Louisiana State University. The Georgia Historical Quarterly Vol. LXXVI, No. 3, Fall 1992 JimmyCarters 1970 Gubernatorial Campaign 613 The manyquestions that immediately arose concerningthe inconsistency,Jimmy Carter adroitly sidestepped. And he has continuedto sidestepever since.Aside froma fewreferences in his 1975 autobiography,he has made no mentionof the campaignin hiswritings, and he has been reluctantto talkabout the race. When pressed to repudiatehis tacticsin thatrace, Carterhas respondedby attackingthe Atlantanewspapers for distortedcoverage on his campaign.Moreover, he has seques- teredhis 1970gubernatorial campaign papers in his presidential libraryin Atlanta,where they remain unprocessed, unscheduled forprocessing, and henceunavailable for examination.3 Some- thingabout the 1970 campaignbothered James Earl Carter,Jr. deeply. The 1970 racewas notJimmy Carter's first try for Georgia's governorship.He had run fouryears earlier, in 1966. Carter did notlike being positioned on theleft or rightof thepolitical spectrum,saying "I believethat I'm a morecomplicated person thanthat." But in 1966 Carterappealed to themoderate-liberal voter,and conducteda gentlemanlyand non-racistcampaign. BruceGalphine of theAtlanta Constitution wrote at thetime that it was hard to meetJimmy Carter and hear him talkwithout "admiringhis integrity."Here, Galphinwent on to say,was a breed of politiciannew to Georgia,subdued, frank even about his deficiencies,and "refusingto torturethe traditionalwhip- pingboys."4 In 1966, race was stillGeorgia's most readilyexploitable politicalissue. ButJimmy Carter refused to use it. He was not Carter'sstrategy, see JamesClotfelter and WilliamR. Hamilton(Carter's pollster), "Electinga Governorin the Seventies,"in Thad Beyleand J. OliverWilliams, eds., AmericanGovernors in BehavioralPerspective (New York, 1972), 32-39. Two campaign aides fromthe Sanderscampaign provide an insider'saccount in RobertCoram and RemerTyson, "The LoserWho Won,"Atlanta Magazine (November 1970), 41-99. See alsoMargaret Spears Lyons, "A Comparisonof Carl Sanders' Gubernatorial Campaigns: 1962 and 1970" (M.A. thesis,University of Georgia,1971). Also veryhelpful were interviewswith participants and observersof the 1970campaign by the Georgia Gov- ernmentDocumentation Project, Special Collections, Georgia State University. 3Thisguarding of documentsis uncharacteristicof Carter.On the lastday of his gubernatorialterm he allowedthe GeorgiaDepartment of Archivesand Historyto pickup his paperswith an agreementthat archive officials would "make the papers availableto thepublic as quicklyas possiblewith no restrictionson access."Gary Fink, Preludeto thePresidency: The PoliticalCharacter and LegislativeLeadership Style of Governor JimmyCarter (Westport, Conn., 1980),xvii. 4BruceGalphin, Jimmy Carter - A Newbreed, AtlantaConstitution, July 2, lyoö. 614 Georgia Historical Quarterly a racist,and hisintegrity precluded opportunism. Years earlier in his hometownof Plains,Carter had refused,in the face of considerablepressure, to join the WhiteCitizens Council, and in a heated congregationalsquabble he made an impassioned speechin favorof allowingblacks to worshipin his church.As a statesenator, he made one of his firstspeeches in opposition to Georgia'sinfamous "thirty questions" law used to disqualify blackvoters.5 Though he finisheda surprisinglyclose thirdin the 1966 race,the outcome convinced Jimmy Carter that the racial issue, likeit or not,could not be ignored.The winnerand new gov- ernorwas Lester Maddox, who had garnerednational notoriety by threateningto use an ax-handleon any blackwho entered the Atlantarestaurant he owned. Afterhis 1966 loss, Carterbegan some hard thinkingand decided two things.One, he would run again in 1970. That surprisedno one who knewhim or had observedhim closely. As one journalistobserved, "to go out and makenice speeches and lose is notJimmy Carter's style." The otherthing Jimmy Carterdecided was, as he laterwrote in hisautobiography, that he "did not intendto lose again."That meanthe was goingto have to makea thirddecision.6 Eightyears earlier, George Wallace, like Jimmy Carter, had lost his 1958 bid forAlabama's governorship because he was perceivedas more moderatethan his race-baitingopponent, JohnPatterson. As a result,Wallace had decided,and declared, thathe would neverbe "out-nigguhedagain." Jimmy Carter was goingto haveto decideif he wouldgo in thesame direction, and ifso, howfar. Before he made thatdecision, he wouldhave to waitand see howthe Georgia political situation would shape up in 1970.7 In the meantimehe kept himselfin the public eye. He traveledthe stateon thecivic club speech-makingcircuit, kept active in the Baptist church, farm organizations,business groups,and the Lions Club,and had himselfmade statechair- 5Wheeler,Jimmy Who? 35. 6WilliamLee Miller, Yankeefrom Georgia (New York, 1978), 109; Carter, WhyNot theBest? 112. 'Marshall Frady, Wallace (New York, 1968), 127. JimmyCarters 1970 Gubernatorial Campaign 615 In Georgia's 1966 gubernatorialelection, Jimmy Carter refused to exploit racisttactics and lost to Lester Maddox (above), who ran a very effectiveracist campaign using ax-handles as a symbolof his defiance of integration.Photograph courtesy of RichardB. RussellMemorial Library, University of Georgia. man of the March of Dimes. By the timehe announced his candidacyJimmy Carter had visitedmore than 400 towns,made morethan 1,800 speeches,and met600,000 Georgians.8 By 1968 certainprominent features of the 1970 political landscapewere becoming clear. On theone hand,Georgia was goingto have the first black candidate for governor in its history, and black votersconstituted 20 percentof the electorate.On the otherhand, 1970 wouldbe the firstgubernatorial election since George Wallace carriedGeorgia in his 1968 bid forthe presidency,and thestate's electorate remained highly receptive to his brand of anti-establishment,anti-integration rhetoric. And to complicatematters further, the Republicanparty, for thefirst time since Reconstruction, had a good chanceto capture Georgia'sgovernorship. In 1966 theRepublican candidate had actuallyreceived a pluralityof thevotes in thegeneral election, but had lostout whenthe lack of a majorityfor any candidate threwthe election into the heavily Democratic state legislature. 8Neal R. Peirce, TheDeep SouthStates of America: People,