[Note: some phrases are used for their historical context; by no means are they meant to be derogatory or even racist in their usage.]

The chapter, "Forgotten Alternatives," in the book The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward, gives details of three of the main alternative philosophies that dealt with race relations. Those three philosophies are as follows: the conservative philosophy, the Southern radicals --or Populist,-- and the liberal philosophy.

For the conservative philosophy, he says, that the "conservative thought of himself as occupying a position between the doctrinaire Negrophile of the left and the fanatical Negrophobe on the right." With this, the conservative movement, although selfishly, use that saying as a 'mask', so to speak. The true motivation behind this movement --as mentioned in the chapter-- is that they want to "lift up" the Negroes so they themselves, the white populace, will not degrade. That aristocratic belief eventually split the whites into a sort of 'caste' system, which undoubtedly broke and demoralized their supporters, which led to their political downfall.

The liberal movement, as described by the author George Washington Cable, "extended demand for equality beyond the political sphere and fought discrimination in employment and the administration of justice." It seems like the liberal philosophy was ahead of its time, not only was the following quotation stated, but, another author described how the segregation of schools should come to and end, and how the Negro, "must be allowed free access to all hotels and other places of public entertainment; he must be allowed free admittance to all theatres...he must not be excluded by a hostile caste sentiment." It seems as though the liberal movement was ahead of its time; the masses in the south was not ready for such a change, it seems like they liked their doctrine of "white supremacy with black inferiority" so much, that they did not want to change it quickly.

The Populist, "steered clear of the patronizing approach that both the radical Republicans and the conservative Democrats took towards the freedmen." The populist seemed to know that no matter the motives, "self-interest always controls," and they wanted to raise support by showing that it was in the self-interest of the black man so he would vote with the white man. One of their main goals was to "present a platform immensely beneficial to both races and injurious to neither." At first, the populist movement did gain a lot of support, which accredits their movement, which was a 'third party' movement--and those third party movements usually don't garner much support. The president of the first Populist convention in Texas, for example, said "I am in favor of giving the colored man full representation....he is a citizen just as much as we are." With this, there was a movement to place Negroes in places of high office, like in the "inmost councils of the party." It seems like the populist party received the most response from the black community, but it eventually failed.

To conclude, I must stay that with this chapter, some of the forgotten alternatives have come to light, it seems the purpose of the author to show these movements as to not focus solely on the hatred and racism of the Jim Crow laws; there were people who differed in opinion. There were people who wanted true equality, and for the nation to be colorblind in their dealings with race relations.

©2001 Terry Bohannon.  Contact the author terry@abortionessay.com for intended use.