bilbo

THEODORE G. BILBO AND THE DECLINE OF RACISM 17reasons and if you keep it up you will arouse the opposition ofthe better class of your race. 72Rhetoric this wild might have drawn some notice before the war, butdelivered only months after the liberation of the concentration camps,Bilbo’s statements had a more ominous tone. Newsweek recognized thisfact: “But elsewhere in the nation, still with fresh memory of the savageryagainst European minorities, there was a murmuring of real concern. . . . he [Bilbo] had chosen the aftermath of a war against the Nazisto invoke mob invective against ‘dagos’ and ‘kikes’ who had urged equalopportunity for the Negro.” 73 Other publications joined in the criticism.Commonweal called Bilbo “an incurably vulgar personage.” 74 The Nationwrote, “Bilbo is a one-man chamber of horrors, an unanswerable argumentin favor of elimination of an obscene evil from a free society of men.” 75A number of groups also sharply criticized Bilbo, among them the Committeeof Catholics for Human Rights: “Your conduct is a chilling deterrentto the world-wide belief that America is the symbol of democracy andhuman rights.” 76 Senators Robert F. Wagner and James Mead of NewYork stated:For a long time now we have engaged in a long and bloody warto wipe out a regime which fostered racial antagonism . . . .Statements insulting to one or more of the many diverse groupswhich make up our great nation are a disservice to the principleson which this nation was founded and to those of ourboys of all races and creeds who during the past few years havefought and in all too many instances died for the preservationof these principles. 77New York state senator Lazarus Joseph echoed this criticism. “I am one ofthose unfortunates whose kids did not come back [from the war], andthere were thousands of them, Catholic, Protestant and Jews, Negro andwhite, who died to keep this sweet land free. I hate and despise thosebigots, like the nefarious Senator Bilbo of Mississippi.” 7872Newsweek, August 6, 1945, p. 39.73Ibid.74Commonweal, August 10, 1945, p. 397.75The Nation, August 4, 1945, p. 101.76New York Times, August 10, 1945.77Ibid., August 11, 1945.78Ibid., August 17, 1945.