Thread by @ashtonpittman

THREAD: In a 1955, Dixiecrat Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi warned that the civil rights movement threatened "the death of southern culture and our aspirations as an Anglo-Saxon people."

Integration, he said, would threaten "their untainted racial heritage." 1/

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1383427700828762118

To fight the destruction of alleged Anglo-Saxon racial purity, Sen. Eastland declared "a crusade to restore Americanism" by fighting to preserve segregation.

The Mississippi Dixiecrat tied that fight to the fight against efforts to "socialize industry"—especially health care. 2/

In 1938, Sen. Theodore Bilbo filibustered a federal anti-lynching law. Before he did so, he gave a speech explaining his opposition to the bill:

"It is absolutely essential to the perpetuation of our Anglo-Saxon civilization that white supremacy in America be maintained." 3/

In 1890, lawmaker J.H. McGehee told fellow delegates who were designing Mississippi's new Jim Crow constitution that the "government of the people" was made "for the Anglo-Saxon people."

"That is what we are here for today—to secure the supremacy of the white race," he said. 4/

McGehee argued for Jim Crow provisions to disenfranchise Black voters, noting that he and others were for "anything...that will ensure white supremacy and the rule of intelligence in Mississippi."

He backed doing so "even if it does sacrifice some of my white children..." 5/

Likewise, 1950s editorials in Mississippi newspapers argued that segregation was necessary to prevent the "amalgamation" of "Anglo Saxon ... racial stock with that of other peoples..."

The Star-Herald editorial, 1954: "Segregation Not UnChristian" 6/

In 1954, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger wrote about "the Anglo-Saxon ideal of racial integrity maintained by a consistent application of the principle of segregation" (an "Anglo-Saxon political tradition"...?).

They contrasted it with the alleged "Communist goal of amalgamation." 7/

So start an "America First Caucus" to preserve the "Anglo-Saxon political traditions if you like."

But don't forget that white supremacists like Sen. Theodore Bilbo (who was so racist he drew Black and white picketers demanding he not be seated in 1945) got there first. 8/