NVCR 2
Page 9

 means of tax money, then we have freedom of religion.

H: Historians who have written about the TFCG comment on the respectability of
 the organization and their restraint, especially as compared to other
 segregationist organizations. Would you agree with that evaluation?

K: Who says this?

H: Historians who have written about the TFCG.

K: Yeah, that's correct. The temptation in having such a group anywhere is to excite
 the masses, rabble-rouse, in other words, and the Tennessee Federation for
 Constitutional Government avoided that approach. We kept the discussion at an
 adult level, informed adult level. Yes, I think that's a correct analysis.

H: What was the relationship of the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional
 Government with the south-wide Federation for Constitutional Government?

K: I know of no south-wide Federation to amount to anything.

H: This was the group that there was a meeting in Memphis in 1956.

K: That's right. Yes, and there was a strong federation, I believe, in Louisiana. It
 was part- and-parcel and guided by the same objectives. Whether they were
 successful in their local activities or not, I don't know, but the Tennessee
 Federation for Constitutional Government was [sympathetic with] that group. In
 fact, the south-wide [Federation]'s aims was consistent with Tennessee, but
 there were other groups that were sprouting up all over the South that we didn't
 know anything about much.

H: Are there any examples you recall?

K: Well, the Citizens' Councils in Mississippi was certainly a Mississippi
 phenomenon, and they were very active in Alabama too, but generally we were
 able to cooperate with the Citizens' Councils. Citizens' Councils were very well-
 administered. I suppose that feelings ran higher the further south you got, that
 was an element of course, but the Citizens' Council published a paper. They
 were led by a very well-informed man and the movement was quite to be
 recommended.

H: So why, in an attitude of cooperation with the Citizen's Councils, did you not
 have direct affiliation?


K: Oh there was, there was cooperation between the [two].