Paul Finkelman argues that there is still substantial racism
in the South today.  He cites a range of evidence to support
this claim--statements by Senator Lott, intimidation of
black voters in Florida.  He is correct, it seems to me.

OK.  Fair enough.  Let's probe that a bit, though.

Has there been any meaningful change in the cultural values
of mainstream southern whites in the last 50 years with
regard to race?

Douglas Smith wrote a superb short biography of Armestead
Boothe, a moderate Virginia state senator in the 1950s and
1960s.  Smith's essay originally appeared in the VHMB--it
has been republished twice to my knoweldge, once by Hershey
and Lassiter in the MODERATES DILEMMA, and once by Hardwick
and Hofstra in VIRGINIA RECONSIDERED.  As Smith makes clear,
Boothe--a true moderate, well "ahead" of most politicians of
his generation--was also a true racist, committed to the
notion that as a group, blacks were inferior to whites.

Are moderate Southern politicians today, relatively
speaking, comparable in their racial values to those of
1950s moderates like Boothe?  Has the public conversation
about race in the South remained static, or have the values
and assumptions underpinning the conversation changed?

I am most interested to hear how folk respond to these
questions.

Warm regards,
Kevin

Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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