The Robert MacNeil Report; 1138; The New Southern Politics

the following programmes made possible in part by grants from public television stations and the corporation for public broadcasting is ouch ouch ouch ouch we can an inning jimmy carter will have his triumph in madison square garden this evening and formally receive what he's labored for so deftly the presidential nomination of the democratic party oh sure that glory with him as a secret that the discipline mr carter is still having to himself this evening it promises to dispose of tomorrow and repeated today that nobody but he is authorized to say who it is for the rover missions and grinding furiously away tonight and now seem to be tilting in

favor of senator must've made we're not for sure tomorrow but tonight we want to savor and examine one of the most intriguing aspects of the potter phenomenon and i thought i will become the first man from the deep south to be nominated as a presidential candidate since reconstruction while us is already been digested by southerners its immense historical significance is only beginning to be addressed by the rest of the country to southerners carter's nomination brings a sense of political redemption and they boast probably of a new south the night we examine that so called new cells and what it means politically for the nation and an ios some random summit conferences with a few seven delegates these last couple of days and there was one thing that frankly surprised me politically in my role as a retired political reporter in the south many of the carter delegates in the southern delegations or old line liberal the folks who've been in their heads against southern conservative establishment folks and losing three years they seek order is a true blue liberal period and they're at a loss to explain

why their liberal friends up north don't seem the same way they think it's rebounded nonsense for instance the talk of the need to balance the ticket with a liberal like mondale or must be my god man jimmy's as liberal as anybody needs to be all right with online i picked up it's really not too difficult to understand that a chance to think about in a while it's simply that the side that in the south the issue that has traditionally separated liberals and conservatives has been riots and carter is saying is having a great record on this issue more than one of the people i talked to related the now well known story of how carter was the only white man in his small baptist church in georgia the vote to admit lax a few years ago that took guts and as those telling the story at madison square garden pointed out only a person living in the south then knows exactly how much debt one of the first signs that these changes we're going to have a vast impact on national politics came at the democratic convention in atlantic city in nineteen sixty four a black lady called fannie lou hamer

appeared at that convention demanding delegate positions for the so called mississippi freedom delegation fannie lou was a sharecropper from ruleville mississippi night riders had shot up her home when she tried to register to vote she believes her protests began the delegate reforms that have changed the complexion of democratic conventions ever since mrs hamer in personal terms what does the new south mean to you well oh the new south mean that i think in the long run that the south will lead the north because when af i own and i'm not saying that we have a rad because we have a long long wait to go but we have more openness on is the in the south than i've seen in the north you know foreigners than his father's coolness we have hundreds of private school news you know caught in mississippi and awe of this fall is

back to win going into those private schools and though you know i just believe you know if we keep all you know you take a restful a minute and by this being in the two hundred years of this country's independence pac think that the whole country should see this time if we have the rights is any other citizen that we really need to change and my whole thing is to see the staccato choose as a running mate you know what i say don't really matter but it would be the most fantastic thing in the history of this country a man like rundown like her jim lehrer just said he doesn't need to choose a northerner about balanced ticket as his liberal enough you think jimmy carter well i don't know you know is told your background i do you know i become more a way of gm you know sets out what i was sick i was in the hospital in april and now you know he is awesome people from his they call me you

know and talk with me far mr carter and an investor is mr carter typical of new southern white leadership well we do help people in the south aren't leaders that it really changed that we have some this no different from what they were in nineteen sixty four when i believe that the real change will come from the south why is card or appealing to white why do you like current well i have to say from the beginning my first choice was saddam's rather and and the reason that saddam's trial was my show as the goals of the program under lyndon baines johnson administration when saddam's tribe less faded thousands of black children and poor whites with the head start program and maybe in one of twenty children my mother and

father hid secure infantino as i know what it's like to be hungry so then after the and i say you know we'll live listen to some of the things that the city mccarty's say after mr shriver dropped out that ok we're kind of christian center another key symbol of the south in the last few elections has been george wallace many has eclipsed this year has closed wonder for good and let another be open james hunt is a delegate for george wallace at this convention in new york as he was in nineteen seventy two in miami is a lawyer from does cumbia a town in northwestern alabama what part do you think was played in bringing the democratic party to the point of nominating a southerner for president almost a hundred years now hey ciao warren south could not love grew up with the dream of bing crosby and now i'm off today with the ceiling and george wallace took the lead in nineteen

sixty four and bring this about legally because he went to wisconsin maryland and then again in nineteen sixty eight primary and primaries he went to all the cities of the north and all who had the ticket in and got an unbelievable result some unbelievable votes from people most states who aren't everybody believed we would be a government that they would be against a face of a person from alabama especially someone like aldo rock or george watts in and you think that started it do you think there is still a wallace constituency and then you describe it yes definitely called there was like a lot of the candidates as a very broad based constituents beyond all are stereotypes though he says he speaks from a rigid person marriage america's great little quest cassano people in

lower economic groups of labor people who support governor was among some people who very wealthy who support him also is great all the great bedrock of his sport has been many of blue collar workers of america and every show all individual if that still exists as a waltz constituency how can they be happy with jimmy carter can you explain it well alm they are all happy with jimmy carter all out for several we're going to talk about the last few days are all they are all happy with him i think almost the wallace the world are they argue that you're the platform and so leap like senate armed jimmy carter is also not quite a specific allegations of the losses we don't know where he expects when we have yet to work and some of his supporters say well you don't need to tell everything need to hold something back right but who

was people believe in and the slogan of his nineteen seventy six can manage trust people and we believe the people can be trusted with a molecule for what he believes how do you perceive briefly the new south which people were talking about i think all the south atlantic has had some terrible times in the great golden division of the racism the terrible tragedies we've been through in the last two years all really nothing new to the south all we had they also warn that you know we had the terrible tragedy of slavery in the new heart of reconstruction until now that's all that's our overcoats when that all come together again and all now we can have people come out so often and not waste our political leaders that they will accept him to rest

country like your job eugene patterson was a prominent newspaper man on the south is a native of georgia he was editor the atlanta constitution last night interim president of st petersburg florida times person you wrote recently that the south has been born again national leadership died in the softness or it has never arisen again to allow born again in a sense that in the eighteenth early nineteenth centuries southerners were key leaders in the formation of this nation but the civil war changed and left scars that left an issue the race issue that had to be resolved before this country could ever be reunited that has been done with cardinal nation and an impression that term new south which is used extensively and me and the media has become almost a code word for liberal in other words when a northerner says there's a new south what he means is that the south is facing a light

on this turn liberal and has become like us in the north is on how you perceive you know i think that it comes back to the one simple central issue race what we have seen from watching in the last decade of the nineteenth century with his populism exerting enormous influence attempting to put together the small farmer agrarian strength was also there was tom watson's watson was a populist leader at the turn of the century but because of immigration it would not be forgiven for that but not the national he was hermetically seal in his little southern environment george wallace had a population much of which is manifested as mr rogers said and the platform in the campaign and in a car with the populism that george wallace attempted could not though national because of his early views on race and so what has occurred here i think in an interview with us in on the new south is that finally it may be a real

michelle reunited with his country the coach carter were positioned himself and by conviction and by political shrewdness took the lead and leading all southern whites and dr martin luther king jr called leading them to do write it quite simple black people know this southern whites have long moment but they came to its lonely and finally made that decision with the help of federal fortune the great social and civil rights movements of the past few years it didn't just happen they're wishing for pressure applied but out of all that mail strong past twenty years suddenly a new politics is born which brings us into a cross or direct position race in the south and that was the one thing that had sealed off centers from national leadership for more than a hundred years that now the biblical of us do about that the the influence in the prosperity and even the good feeling uncertain of the national reconciliation of the self

esteem in proportion to the widening and broadening the rights accorded to the black so do you feel that that jimmy carter as the symbol as you say of this new sap this new politics and also like all of you to speak to this question whether or not he truly speaks for the majority of the southerners i mean are you saying that the that the majority of the southerners are behind jimmy carter and he speaks for them or is he speaking for the white liberals and the blacks in the south right now the time well frankly i think he'd be really speaks for majority yes and all i can't say that he's completely acceptable to everybody and south the music's of all people knew this may not really all of the right supporting you know we it's it's like anything else some of the black you know supporting and some of them down and that always happen you know we're reading today the wall

street journal had an extensive speculative piece about what cantor's campaign was going to be and it pretty well indicated at least for the moment of this was right that it was going to take the south for granted asylum electoral votes for granted can he do that i believe that a majority of the south is inclined to vote for coverage are resisting showed i think they're intensely proud of the region and he has spoken for it will be all over the political dexterity that bred in the bone in southern politician he understands that you have to speak softly and i think you're going to apply in your direction and he is but to do that you succeeded the list that of the dust cleared unless other republicans nominate eventually make a decision between ford and reagan ordinary and obviously more conservative than jimmy carter and let's say as much to suggest people start reading the democratic platform is it too much to expect of this regional pride and all that is going to cause

a really very conservative people in the south are still vote for a man who is much more liberal than the candidate on the other side well i really think that that the regional pride is not going to carry in arkansas because will do that reagan is a very attractive candidate rick mace ok and i'm personally convinced he's going to be the vice presidential nominee and that is going to court record time so maybe it'll help keep them honest keep them living remember where you came from and then include the south in his cell and his solo work what you're saying is that this new regional pride in this growing awareness that they have thrown off the shackles that paterson would describe it doesn't mean a whole lot to learn a whole lot of voters most of whom would still like to hear that appeal to the older things from prime minister and perhaps or something else that would you mean what is it what is it they want to hear those orders or no money original probably want to

hear honesty and i want to hear some songs somebody being specific about issues and reagan was talk about the panama canal law issue for instance and here he says what he means without mincing words unless it was actually care about the panama consort with a cure but they're really going to have an influence votes i'm on it and a sizable what it through corrupt same or not we really you know personally these ad is an anti as fault itself you not just be an artist that beloved well tailored to advantage you know i never thought that they would get worse but you know maybe i'm not the person in mississippi who walks in the way the bank was going you know aig had no law in the lab could i no way in the world the lack

of old soul mr reagan's are president no we know they're not think of autism are but you know audie it from what they set back in eighteen years that the five eighty years i'm not a fall would you listen out that it may be an accented there's this liberation you another writer's been talking about this is this final circling of the racial question the beginning of a certain crucial questions is tamer says that its begun to be settled what was a way to go years anderson is this election going to be a test of whether that's been settled or not i don't think so i disagree with mr ford reagan ticket could seriously undercut a core democratic candidates in the south because again not necessarily regional pride but i love the

fact that as a source of some pride in the cell we are an integrated region are school integrated our public accommodations are integrated and it has been done with a grace that i think many of the porsche ministers of field marshall i think there is a great pride and many white southerners that they have brought this off and suddenly that great wall between people who always liked each other but jump about a crust buttressed fear of traditional really cannot act bold suddenly forced to act upon it now familiar with one another and free i don't believe that the desegregation integration whatever you wish to call it will ever again be a major political issue that will move and shake mr mike waters in the southern characters well please don't misunderstand me i don't like that a ford reagan ticket is going to carry this out of a legion of origin win so what i'm talking about is what it could be like possibly that i believe the court will hear the sound of the leading theory album and artistry and for all and i believe that that issue is now

the issues along with segregation integration issues whether or not we can get this country moving in and provide jobs and without concern large corporations in this country to have concerned people and it was really a black or white or whatever that's the issue and i think that's where jimmy carter ago a carousel as well as legal and weapons on track record three years marshall for a southern writer a piece in newsweek a year ago almost to the day on the poor jimmy carter was even considered to be a serious can he said the south may say more sensible now less outrageous and troublesome for the rest of the nation but in the process the old pipe organ range of prodigal possibilities for life there both gentle and barbara's good and evil and contracted to the comfortably monotone no middle c

i suppose are you saying that the parched american idol i find it hard to believe the region of such flavor in there and the gondola just a few generations i believe that there is a unique uniqueness to being southern that will maintain itself just as the ethnic personalities when they themselves what is the uniqueness so as it has been written about and talked about and god knows is going to talk about two retired and probably between our november so let's get an early start what is the uniqueness of being sober he used have never shot down find it but you know the church law favors a flat wooden the greeks the power of coca cola have poetry and thats what schwalbe believes it's everything that steven vincent them they wrote about in john brown's body and michele talk a natural moment and absorb a deceptive should mention in politics really that market will not national how can you say what should that a proportional which a good

year old hometown atlanta ga the most disliked yet probably eighty percent of the other cities in size and throughout the united states in atlanta doesn't you knew you rub on freeways and godfrey went to arrive in minneapolis or in new york or los angeles or anywhere else on the wall of them in the space of big cities have become organized what's so unique about a resister point but there is going to be solved by now received a great influx of northern capital of jobs of industrialization of people of talent they'd be the sunbelt there is true the south is now going to fill up of prosperity and this comes along and coincided with the sudden export of southern leadership so i have never as a southerner and my life felt as good as i do about my native region and it goes back and lincoln memorials on the we were told in sunday school that you know about the golden rule and we resisted that rule with respect in that assignment people can lol and

now we have found not only in and then the last of the people in integrating the society first because they had to another prisoner and we've been a great sense that it is they cannot devised politics to go national and of course this is going to bring in a great the admixture a lot of new things and to have an isolated southern region that suffered many years for of perversity we missed the good times and generations across this country and in the west in west and a softening uniquely anglo saxon and then a day and many for many years but now suddenly oh you're finding all kinds of americans are brimming with them that enormous capacity and resourcefulness that they're brought prosperity for the region's it's a good time and the reconstruction well sure should people who do not live in the south should westerners in mid westerns and northerners welcome the arrival of the south's symbolized by mr carter in national politics because the south has something unique to contribute or because it's becoming more like that what do you think the

instrument this awful lot of them all solution didn't want to leave his favorite watched everybody all and we owe him a unique region we belong to elation and all of this proposal indifferent we think that's good in some ways and all we don't cling it all fall we think that the tradition is that is the thing that separates the south and we can retain the good tradition and endowed give up some bad traditions and i think you know this hour the most intimate spell and spoke about you know what was what we was taught in sunday's new homage to believe in god and the earth belong to god in the food as they are even the cavaliers only eu and until all of us whether we white

black brown or whatever color they are until we raised that got end to current day you know or the bank that we've done in the paper we all in for trouble what does he make this land that you know seventeenth out of that in twenty six verse eight and has made a one but our nation so we made from one base you know i would you know made one nation now bob wright vice president ceo see a lot of that you know when apple is like the person you know went in and now it means it change that everybody you know was all well people thought we would try to do something but we won't he we've always you know it was all star games the way so that doesn't i guess some people are not so we always

prepared they're so we always clean their homes we always know as they updates and that you know they don't know no ads what we want is a chance to be treated is your name is mr carter says nominations and possibly election going to increase that make that move faster or is there a danger do you will make the north especially think well the battles over don't think that may be coming from the south bitterness the emcee in other people that you know just like visit well you know teen years ago this couldn't happen in the south that what's happening in the south you know the kind of dollars that have been opened and they're wide open boston staying at home you know like when you open places in the end in places like the iowa the right to be a little place in illinois which is the county

seat you know i just got nineteen women that the cotton field and we went to notice than three days and one of the points of the group trout a lot and this is the kind of thing that have to be done well when mrs hamer thank you very much for coming soon stolen patterson says so that we're going to talk about a large gym says the next two months that's jim what about tomorrow night the peak to peak for a transcript of tonight's program send one dollar to a robert mcneill reports fox report by new york one what this program was produced by wnet

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