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From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 46, 15 November 1948, p. 4.
ranscribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Immediately after Henry Wallace announced his candidacy, I wrote as follows in the Jan. 5 Militant: “If present indications mean anything, he will draw a very large Negro vote in 1948; perhaps even a majority of the Negro vote.” At the time that was written, Truman had already begun his demagogic appeal to Negroes by endorsing some of the recommendations of his Committee on Civil Rights. Despite that, I believed that Truman would be unable to convince large numbers of Negroes that he really meant business on civil rights, and that was why I predicted a strong vote for Wallace.
The Nov. 2 returns show I was wrong about the final election results, leaving aside the question of whether I was right about the sentiment existing last January. Although a study of the results in major Negro communities shows that Wallace did do relatively better there than elsewhere, it is plain that Truman got a clear majority of the Negro vote in the North as well as the South. I think I know why.
A change began at the Democratic convention in July. Truman had sought a compromise with the Southern wing of his party on civil rights. But the convention, realizing better than he did at that time the importance of the northern Negro vote, forced through a stronger-sounding plank than he had advocated. The result was the Dixiecrat walkout, and a few weeks later the Dixiecrat nomination of candidates.
In the eyes of many Negroes, this seemed to indicate the emergence of a new Democratic Party. With at least some of the most rabid race-hatcrs out of the party, the Democratic Party seemed to them to have undergone a progressive transformation. And although Truman carefully avoided discussing civil rights in the South, a majority of the Negro voters evidently decided enough of a change had been made to warrant the belief that Truman represented a lesser evil.
But it would be wrong to conclude from this that the Negro people are now strongly committed to the Democratic Party, or that they will be committed to it at all for any extended period. It is true that they suffered under an illusion in voting for Truman. But it is the kind of illusion that can disappear rapidly – in a matter of months even – and give way to a widespread recognition that the Democratic Party can never be a genuine instrument for Negro progress and emancipation.
This is not the first time the Democrats have been in power after making lavish promises to the Negroes. What reason is there to think, these promises will be kept better this time than before? None at all – especially when we can already see the Democrats preparing a reconciliation with their Southern wing, which wields such power in Congress, and when already there is talk about a “compromise” civil rights program acceptable to the Southern wing.
No, the Negroes are not going to get anything at all out of those civil rights promises unless they fight for it, and that is why increased struggles for equality must be expected in the coming period. In those struggles the Negroes are going to find themselves pitted against the Democratic Party leadership, including Truman. The experience they will pass through in that struggle will destroy illusions about the “lesser evil” nature of the Democratic Party. And that in turn, we are confident, will reawaken the movement in Negro ranks for a clean break with all capitalist parties and the establishment of an independent Labor Party based on the unions and Negro organizations.
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