About Barrow journal. (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2016)
PAGE 4A BARROW JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ” ~ Henry Ward Beecher - KKK was not created for ‘law State Rep. Tommy Benton created a fire storm of controversy two weeks ago when he downplayed the racial vio lence created by the KKK in the years after the Civil War. According to Rep. Benton, the Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order. It made a lot of people straighten up. I’m not saying what they did was right. It's just the way things were. ” Rep. Benton is a retired his tory teacher and friend, but on this issue, I have to part ways with his interpretation of history. There are several examples of Klan violence in our local history. One Klan story from here even led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1884. Here’s that story: In the summer of 1883, a group of 40-50 masked Klan members began a campaign of terror in Banks and Jackson counties. One Banks County black man was beaten for allegedly having pushed a white woman off a railroad track. A black woman near Commerce was whipped because she didn’t keep her cotton clean. A black boy near Commerce was shot in the mouth by the Klan. Other blacks in the Banks-Jackson area were beaten as well. In August 1883, a group of citizens from Banks and Jackson counties met at Burn’s Store in Maysville where they adopted a peti tion calling for an end to the Klan violence. “Rev. J.K. Parker and Professor Caldwell denounced these would-be kukiux in unmea sured terms, and called on all the good citi zens of the counties to rise in their might and suppress it," said one newspaper article about that meeting. A Gainesville newspaper said of the 1883 violence in Banks and Jackson: “We hope the proper authorities will take this matter in hand at once and bring every mother’s son to justice who were engaged in this midnight lawlessness. It is high time that this class of assassins are taught to know that Georgia is living under civilized statute laws and that lawless marauders are no longer tolerated. ” Eight Jackson County men were arrested for the violence and charged by federal offi cials for “kukluxing.” The brothers Jasper, Dilmus, Neal and James Yarbrough, Lovie Streetman, Bola Emory, Harry Green and Stace Lendemon were charged under federal law for beating one of the blacks after he voted in the pre vious election for U.S. House of Representatives candidate Emory Speer. (Speer lost that re-elec tion bid and was appoint ed federal prosecutor. Ironically, he was the prosecutor of this case.) Known at the time as the “Banks County kuk iux case," the eight men went to trial in October 1883 before a federal jury in Atlanta of seven white men and five black men. Several of the blacks who had been beat en testified at the Atlanta trial. One removed his shirt in the courtroom to show where the Klan group had whipped him with 177 lashes. Another showed the court a bullet hole scar on his body. But it was the judge’s charge to the jury in the case that is telling. In his charge, Judge McCay said in part: “This is a very disgraceful offense. Unfortunately it is an offense apparently without motive. Twenty years ago nobody could conceive of any one doing such a thing. But unfortunately within the last few years it is not uncommon thing for men apparently for no other motive except such as is given in this case to do such hellish things. It all grows out of the state of society the freedom of the negro has brought about. His elevation seems to have run a part of our people crazy....nothing has tended so much to bring this southern country into disgrace — nothing has tended so much to put the balance of the United States against us, as this kind of outrages. They are mean, they are disgraceful, they are horrible.... ” The jury found all eight men guilty. It was the first time in the state’s history that a conviction had been handed down against white men for “kukluxing.” The eight men, handcuffed together in pairs of two, were marched out of the court house and down the street to the Fulton County jail. They were later sentenced to two years in the federal penitentiary at Albany NY, and escorted there in December 1883 by federal marshals, one of whom was and order’ reportedly former Confederate Civil War Gen. James Longstreet. But that wasn’t the end of this case. The eight Jackson County “kukluxers” petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to free them, arguing that Congress had no right to pass laws governing state voting regulations. But in early 1884, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions and in doing so affirmed — for the first time ever — that under the 15th Amendment, blacks had a right to vote in Federal elections and that Congress, not individual states, had the power to protect and enforce that right. It was a major decision by the Supreme Court. In previous rulings, the court had not defended federal laws protecting the right of blacks to vote. But in this case (known legally as Ex parte Yarbrough), the court recognized the right of blacks to vote and the right of the Federal government to create and enforce laws protecting black voters. Unfortunately, that case didn’t stop Southern states from disenfranchising blacks at the ballot box. It wasn’t until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that black citizens were finally allowed full voting rights in the South. Nor did that 1884 case end the harassment and killings of blacks by white mobs and Klan members. The beatings continued and 458 people, mostly black, were lynched by mob violence after 1884 and well into the 20th Century. So contrary to Rep. Benton’s sympathetic comments of Klan history, the group rep resented a violent strain of racial hatred. It was condemned by average citizens, as evidenced at the Maysville meeting of August 1883. And it was condemned by the courts, as happened in this landmark Klan case from Jackson and Banks counties. The historical record is clear that while the Klan might have begun as a secretive social club formed by six Confederate vet erans in 1866, it very soon evolved into a terrorist group whose violence was aimed at harassing blacks in the South and fight ing Reconstruction. How the Klan began is immaterial to what it became. Those white men riding around the Southern countryside beating blacks while wearing sheets and hoods over their faces were racist thugs and cowards. They do not deserve to be remembered otherwise. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com. Kemp’s primary could be decisive Two years ago, Secretary of State Brian Kemp began his push to set up an “SEC Primary” for a simple reason: he wanted the world to pay more atten tion to Georgia and the South in an important presidential election year. “I think for years a lot of people got frustrated that the presidential primary race was over before Georgians ever got to vote,” Kemp said. Eventually, he was able to convince colleagues in Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas to join Georgia in hold ing their presidential primaries on March 1. “Even Hillary Clinton knows that the road to the White House now runs through southern states like Georgia," Kemp said. That is not an empty boast. As the prima ry date draws closer, it looks like voters in Georgia and that handful of southern states could be the key to determining which can didates are put on the winning path to the nominations. The final results, however, may not be exactly what Kemp envisioned when he first floated the idea of a regional primary. The conventional wisdom then was that the southern states, with voters who tend to be more conservative, could give a cam paign boost to a family values conservative like Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum in the Republican primary. But the political world has turned upside down since early 2014, when Kemp first started working on his grand plan. Family values candidates like Huckabee and Santorum have already dropped out of the GOP race. It’s a battle now between anti-establishment candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, on the one hand, and establishment candidates Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Chris Christie. In the Iowa caucuses, Republican voters clearly preferred the anti-establishment side of the ballot. Cruz, Trump, and Ben Carson drew the combined support of 62 percent of the caucus voters. Rubio and the other establishment candidates attracted a com bined vote of less than 35 percent. A recent poll of Georgia’s GOP voters for WSB-TV shows they also prefer that anti-establishment flavor - the combined support for Trump, Cruz, and Carson was about 53 percent, compared to less than 30 percent for the establishment candidates (there was also a 15 percent undecided vote). If that trend holds up through March 1, Deep South voters could well provide the boost that Trump or Cruz needs to continue a winning campaign against the Republican Party establishment. That would be a rebuke to Republican stalwarts like House Speaker David Ralston (he endorsed Christie), Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (he sup ports Bush), and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (he’s a Rubio backer). On the Democratic side, there have also been momentous changes in the political landscape since Kemp began putting the regional primary together. Back then, it appeared Hillary Clinton had the inside track to the Democratic nomina tion, which meant that the votes from a few southern primaries wouldn’t really matter. Over the past year, of course, we’ve seen that scenario change significantly. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came out of left field, literally speaking, and is bolstering his sup port among Democratic voters, particularly younger ones. Sanders came within a handful of votes of winning the Iowa caucuses, and the polls give him a lead over Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. If the New Hampshire polls turn out to be even somewhat accurate, then there’s a real race for the Democratic nomination. As the Sanders threat grows, it could be the southern voters in the March 1 primaries who rescue Clinton. Sanders has done well against Clinton in states whose populations are overwhelmingly white. Clinton does much better than Sanders among black vot ers, however, and the southern states have larger percentages of black voters, along with growing numbers of Latinos. If Clinton can sweep those states in the SEC Primary, it could re-establish her as the favorite over Sanders when the campaign shifts to other regions. Kemp is a loyal Republican, so I doubt he assembled a regional primary with the inten tion of helping Clinton win the Democratic nomination. It would be highly ironic if that turns out to be the result. That is not Kemp’s fault, of course. As the emergence of Trump and Sanders illus trates, the world changes quickly in politics. If you try to predict what will happen two years down the road, you just might run off the road. Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news service at gare- port.com that reports on state govern ment and politics. He can be reached at tcrawford@gareport. com. The Barrow Journal Winder, Barrow County, Ga. www.BarrowJournal.com Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Chris Bridges Editor Jessica Brown Photographer Susan Treadwell Reporter Alex Pace Reporter Sharon Hogan Reporter POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow Journal, 77 East May Street, Winder, Georgia 30680 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Winder, Georgia 30680 (USPS 025-132) Email: news@barrowjournal.com Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397) Fax: 678-425-1435 SUBSCRIPTIONS: $25.00/yr. Campaigning in the primary of 1990 Items from my political notebook as Georgia’s presidential primary approaches: • The long list of Republican candidates on this year’s Georgia presi dential primary ballot har kens back to a time when seeing a lenghty list of names was not that unusu al. While 13 GOP candi dates are on the Georgia presidential ballot for 2016, some have already fallen by the wayside including Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki and Rick Santorum. You will still be able to vote for any of them, however. Ballots have to be compiled well before the actual primary date (March 1 for Georgia) since absentee voting actually began in January. Advance in-person voting got started Monday of this week. Recently, I have been looking back at Georgia’s Lt. Governor primary from 1990. It was another case of a long list of candidates, especially on the Democratic side, and since it marked the first pri mary I had the opportunity to vote in, the primary race that spring and summer has always stuck in my mind. It should be noted that this was still a time when Georgia didn’t elect Republicans to statewide office. If you won the Democratic nomination then you were all but guaranteed of winning the general election in November. Zell Miller, who had been Lt. Governor for 16 years decided to run for Governor in 1990 leaving his old job attractive to many potential candi dates. Miller was a lifelong Democrat who later sided with Republicans, at least nationally, and would also become a U.S. Senator, as a Democrat no less. The Lt. Governor’s race in 1990 (it’s hard to believe that has been more than 25 years ago now) included Pierre Howard, Joe Kennedy, George Berry, Jim Pannell, Frank Bailey. Bud Stumbaugh, J.B. Stoner. Bobby Hill and Jim Goolsby. Some of the names on the list may not mean much to most. Kennedy and Stumbaugh were both state senators and Hill, the only African American in the race, was a state representative. James Goolsby a Spaulding County commissioner, was known for riding a small motorcycle to and from campaign stops with his campaign signs attached. State Senator Wayne Garner had also announced he was running and had begun campaigning ear lier in the year but had to end his candidacy due to the health of his son, who was in an accident while riding a Go-kart. Garner was an early favorite to possibly win the race. It was the candidacy of Stoner, an avowed racist, however, that cast a national spotlight on the race. Some criticized Georgia’s state Democratic Party for allowing Stoner on the ballot even though he had run for various offices previously, including Governor, Lt. Governor and U.S. Senate. Stoner had been convicted of bombing a church in the 1950s and actually spent time in prison. Since campaign advertisements cannot be censored by the FCC, Stoner’s ads had to be aired and if anyone remembers seeing them, you no doubt cringed while listening to the dialog. Stoner’s appearance at various forums across the state caused some candidates to refuse to take the stage with him. Others felt the best way to combat him was to allow him to speak and then his own words would show him for what he was all about (although it was really no secret as to his extremist views.) In the end, the primary held on July 17, 1990 saw Howard and Kennedy earn spots in a runoff. With nine candidates, a runoff was virtually guaranteed. Howard would serve two terms as Lt. Gov., but then shocked most political experts by not run ning for Governor in 2008. While some remember Howard for waging a battle against teen drinking and driving, many remember him for being less than a stellar politician in terms of second amendment rights and his words about the tobacco industry showed he was not really a fan of free enterprise. Stoner, by the way, finished seventh in the nine-candidate race, not far behind sixth-place finisher Stumbaugh. Perhaps most unsettling was the fact that Stoner finished ahead of Hill. Statewide primaries in Georgia are typically not as crowded these days. If a race has four or five candidates, it is seen as a high number. Yet, that campaign for Lt. Gov. more than 25 years ago still sticks in my mind as well as those of many political pundits. Georgia will likely have an open race for Lt. Governor in 2018 but one has to wonder if it will be as interesting to watch as that one from the initial race of the 90s. • We’ll keep track of early voting totals in Barrow County over the next couple of weeks leading into the March 1 primary date. Presidential elections by their nature typically generate a high level of inter est. We’ll see if that holds true this time. Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow Journal. You can reach him at cbridges@barrowjournal. com. chris bridges
