politics BY MARK KELLY | PHOTOS COURTESY OF DR. GLEN BROWDER LEFT TO RIGHT: Huddling on the floor of Individually and collectively, the books document journalists, and progressive activists who are invested the Alabama Legislature the cautious alliances that developed between white professionally in that narrative. are Representatives politicians and black leaders and activists beginning “This is a controversial thesis,” he acknowledges. “It Browder and Fred Horn in the 1970s. At that time, to be seen openly courting does not fit the heroic drama of Civil Rights history. (Birmingham), House black votes was prob- It is politically incor- sponsor of the landmark stealth politics lematic for white of- rect, because it cred- deputy registrars bill, fice seekers in the “the race game is still its white Southern early 1980s; Glen Browder thinks our Civil riGhts history is missinG somethinG. According to One scholar says South; the “stealth” politicians with posi- Browder and U.S. Senator the former AlAbAmA congressmAn, Assigning All credit for progress on rAciAl issues to the movement of it wasn’t just approach provided played, but the terms tive contributions to Howell Heflin at a press the 1950s And ‘60s And subsequent orgAnized humAn rights Activities is to engAge in gross oversimplificAtion white politicians an civil rights and could conference in Alabama the marches and of deeply complicAted mAtters. now professor emeritus of AmericAn democrAcy At JAcksonville stAte uni- arms-length means have changed, and mostly be misconstrued to (1990s). Browder con- protests that got versity, browder points to whAt he terms “steAlth reconstruction” As A prime fActor in the south’s movement of ensuring African- imply that black ac- sidered Heflin a positive towArd A new politicAl order thAt hAs mAteriAlized, grAduAlly And sometimes pAinfully, over the pAst four American voter turn- for the better.” tivists compromised model of quiet, practical, us to where we are decAdes. thAt progress, he Argues, hAs come About in pArt As A result of birAciAl AccommodAtion And out in key elections, glen browder the Movement for biracial leadership; Out- today. It was also compromise—much of it outside the public eye—thAt followed the protests, boycotts, And mArches. while also advancing crass political objec- going Governor George black political interests and expanding the power of tives. Consequently, there are a lot of people who are Wallace paid a special the sometimes- “The change we see in the South today was not Browder’s provocative ideas about “race-gaming” African-American political organizations. not interested in hearing it.” visit to Browder’s Secre- secret alliances produced by the Civil Rights Movement alone,” says in Alabama and Southern politics were shaped by Beyond those readers who may accuse him of sim- “I am not trying to challenge the heroic drama itself,” tary of State reception on Browder. “Throughout the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s there his own experience—first as a college professor with ply indulging in another rehash of a painful period in Browder adds. “I am writing about the centrality of race inauguration day, January forged between were conscious efforts by white and black politicians a scholarly interest in the electoral process, then as Southern history, Browder fully expects objections to to my own career and those of other reform-oriented 19, 1987; Browder talks black and white and activists to work together to change the Southern a pollster and political consultant, and finally by his his account from white and black politicos who, even politicians. You had to calculate race into the formula with Jacksonville City political system. To a significant extent, this was done 16-year career as a Democratic candidate and office- at this late date, are wary of having past or present al- of any issue on which you wanted to make progress— Councilman Theodore Fox, politicians. And by stealth, through quiet, practical biracial politics holder. His observations about the past and present liances seen in this new light. With its frank discussion not just because you needed votes, but if you actu- early 1980s. that achieved relatively progressive ends. As a result, dynamics of racial politics in the South—and their of backroom deals and bare-knuckled political tactics ally wanted to get anything done once you’d won your some don’t like blacks and whites in the South now engage political- possible future in the Obama Era—are detailed in deployed in pursuit of positive social ends, Browder’s election. Nobody has written about that, about the real hearing that. ly in a way that is qualitatively different than in the three books to be released consecutively in coming work also challenges certain aspects of the accepted nuts-and-bolts politics of that era and the people who past. The race game is still played, but the terms have months by Montgomery-based publisher NewSouth public narrative of Civil Rights and racial progress— just went at these very difficult social issues and tried to changed, and mostly for the better.” Books (see sidebar on page 36). a challenge that likely will be taken up by scholars, make them work politically, without a lot of fanfare.” 34 | march/april 09 | 35 politics ABOVE, LEFT: Browder and State Senator Donald Holmes speak at the Jacksonville City Library dedication; ABOVE, RIGHT: Browder and Staff Assistant/Legislative Correspondent Artemesia Stanberry in the U.S. Capitol (1996). BROwder’s Books>> During 2009, Montgomery’s NewSouth Books will publish Prior to representing Alabama’s Third Congressio- have been as effective without the black-white coop- three titles by former Alabama Congressman Glen Browder: nal District from 1989-96, Browder served one term in eration discussed in this thesis.” the Alabama House of Representatives and was Ala- “What we did supplemented the Movement in The South’s New Racial Politics: Inside the Race Game bama’s Secretary of State from 1986 until he went to ways that marches and laws and troops could not of Southern Political History Washington after winning a special election to replace have,” Browder agrees. “It was somewhat secretive, will be published in April. The longtime Republican Congressman Bill Nichols, who sometimes uncomfortable, often less than noble. But book examines the ways in died in office. His career in elective office ended in it helped push our society forward at a time when the which blacks and whites in 1996, after he lost a bid for the Democratic nomination Movement was becoming less effective.” today’s South engage in to succeed the retiring U.S. Senator Howell Heflin. As for the present and future, Browder writes that politics that are more open and Along with Heflin and other white politicians like the South has reached a “halfway house of racial poli- sophisticated, and yet still harbor the cynicism and Bill Baxley—who served as state Attorney General for tics,” in which constitutional white supremacy and mistrust that are legacies of two terms in the 1970s and was lieutenant governor statutory segregation have yielded to a more complete the old racist system. from 1982-86—Browder was one of a new breed of version of democracy, albeit one in which matters of Stealth Reconstruction: white Southern politicians who emerged in the post- race have been “institutionalized in race-sensitive, The Untold Story of Southern Civil Rights era, moderate-to-liberal in their views and almost dualistic public policies and alternative ap- Politics and History will possessed of a keen understanding of the practical side proaches and programs for whites and blacks.” Even so, be released this summer. of winning elections. Meanwhile, even as the Move- he thinks the most important conclusion to be drawn Co-authored by Browder ment splintered and waned after the assassination of from his interpretive analysis is that today’s Southern and Artemesia Stanberry, an Martin Luther King, Jr., new black leadership emerged political system is more positive and functional than assistant professor at North Carolina Central University, the from the political realm, also ready to engage in stealth ever before in terms of style, substance, strategy, op- book presents groundbreaking, politics to achieve their goals; in Alabama, the most erations, and outcomes. controversial ideas about the influential such leaders were Richard Arrington, who “A new kind of politics has taken hold,” Browder powerful role of race in served as Birmingham’s first African-American mayor says. “The South has come to terms with the idea Southern political history. from 1979-99, and Joe Reed, who continues to chair that race and racism are unavoidable legacies in the Professor-Politician, the state’s predominant black political organization, public arena, and that moderated race-gaming is an a biography/memoir on the Alabama Democratic Conference. appropriate way to do political business in a contem- which Browder cooperated “I find the characterization to be provocative, in- porary democracy. The critical lesson, I think, is that with Anniston-based journalist formative, and realistic,” Arrington says in Browder’s biracial accommodation is the means by which black Geni Certain, is scheduled for a fall release. Stealth Reconstruction. “I believe that it would have and white Southerners perhaps can move forward in been very difficult for the Civil Rights Movement to dealing with the legacy of our hard history.” 36 | .