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More Than a Passive Interest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2014

NIALL PALMER
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Abstract

The defeat of the Dyer anti-lynching bill in 1922 was a turning point in relations between black Americans and the Republican Party. Little is understood, however, about the role played in the debates by President Warren Harding. This article contends that Harding's conflicted views on presidential leadership caused him to badly mishandle the bill. The President's inability to choose between a restrained and consensual “Whig” approach and a more active “stewardship” role on a wide range of issues resulted in an erratic and ultimately unsustainable style of leadership. The Dyer bill's failure was affected by this dilemma as the hopes of black and white reformers were alternately raised and dashed by Harding's apparent indecisiveness. Black resentment at the bill's ultimate defeat was thus heightened still further, with severe consequences for the Republican Party's long-term electoral relationship with black voters.

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Journal of American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , May 2014 , pp. 417 - 443
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

1 For a summation of relations between the Harding White House and the press see Ponder, Stephen, Managing the Press: Origins of the Media Presidency, 1897–1933 (London: Macmillan Press Ltd. 1999), 109–20Google Scholar. For media manipulation by the 1920 Harding campaign see Morello, John A., Selling the President: Albert D. Lasker, Advertising and the Election of Warren G. Harding (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001)Google Scholar.

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4 Earl Ofari Hutchinson examines Harding's attitude towards the Dyer bill in a broad survey of presidential attitudes on black civil liberties but does not focus solely on Dyer or reference post-1964 revisionism. See Hutchinson, Earl Ofari, Betrayed: A History of Presidential Failure to Protect Black Lives (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

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36 Schneider claims, however, that the effect of Goff's testimony was to reinforce the fears of Democrats and some Republicans that the new law would trigger federal government intervention in a variety of state policing matters from lynching to bootlegging. Schneider, 175.

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44 “Harding Says Negro Must Have Equality in Political Life,” New York Times, 27 Oct. 1921, 1.

45 “Harding Directs.”

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52 Ibid.

53 Letter, J.Silas Harris to Warren G. Harding (WGH), 26 Oct. 1921, Harding Papers, Roll 230, Box 765, Folder 700.

54 “The Negro's Status Declared by the President.”

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58 Sinclair, The Available Man.

59 Both quotations from Sinclair, 230–35.

60 Letter, WGH to H. H. Kohlsaat, 28 Oct. 1921, Harding Papers, Roll 229, Folder 761, #0339.

61 Letter, WGH to Malcolm Jennings, 5 Jan. 1922, Malcolm Jennings Collection, Harding Papers, Roll 261.

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72 Ibid.

73 GC to Alice Carter Simmons, 1 Aug. 1922, Harding Papers, File 266, Folder 5.

74 Nick Chiles to WG. Harding Papers, 5 Aug. 1922, File 266, Folder 5.

75 Ibid.

76 Letter, WGH to Malcolm Jennings, 14 July 1921, Malcolm Jennings Collection, Harding Papers, Roll 261.

77 Literary Digest, 6 Aug. 1921, 12.

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79 Indiana Evening Gazette, text of President Harding's message to Congress, 19 Aug. 1922, 7.

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87 Telegram, NAACP to WGH, 27 Aug. 1922, Harding Papers, File 266, Folder 5.

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90 Ibid.

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93 Letter, Henry Cabot Lodge to GC, 4 Oct. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, File 266, Folder 5.

94 Letter, Harry C. Gahn to WGH, 14 Oct. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, File 266, Folder 5.

95 Letter, WGH to John N. Parker, 8 Nov. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, Box 720.

96 Letter, GC to JWJ, 23 Nov. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, File 266, Folder 5.

97 Letter, Harry E. Davis to WGH, 2 Dec. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, File 266, Folder 6.

98 Ibid.

99 Lodge quoted in Dray, 271.

100 Letter, WGH to Harry E. Davis, 4 Dec. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, File 266, Folder 6.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid.

103 Letter, Harry E. Davis to WGH, 15 Dec. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 193, File 266, Folder 6.

104 Ibid.

105 Letter, WGH to Jonathan Bourne Jr., 4 Dec. 1922, Harding Papers, Roll 229, Box 762.

106 “Political Straws,” The Crisis, 26, 3 (July 1923), 124.

107 Ibid.