preferred, these three proposals formed a fairly comprehensive program to protect the

political, civil, and economic rights of African Americans. For southerners, the

maintenance of the segregationist system was of paramount importance. Republicans

did not have the personal stake in the civil rights programs that their southern

counterparts did and their individual support of the civil rights program depended

largely on their idea of states' rights and federalism.

 Most agreed that anti-lynching was an area of legislative concern. During the

first session of the 80th Congress, Democrats and Republicans introduced eleven

separate anti-lynching bills in the House. Each bill went to the judiciary committee

and remained there through the end of the session. Judiciary Chairman Earl Michener,

believed that law enforcement and jury selection were local matters and refused to

report bills that he believed expanded the federal bureaucracy further. In the Senate,

Republicans Albert Hawkes of New Jersey, Wayne Morse of Oregon, William

Knowland of California, and Democrat Robert Wagner of New York introduced three

anti-lynching measures.38 Publicly, Taft favored anti-lynching legislation and in

earlier sessions of Congress had cast votes in favor of similar bills. In 1947, he did not

exercise the leadership necessary to bring the legislation to the floor. In fact, during

the first session very few Republican Congressmen or Senators advocated an active

stance on anti-lynching. In the House, only liberal Republicans Clifford Case,

Kenneth Keating, and Robert Twyman lobbied for anti-lynching legislation, but the

Judiciary Committee quashed their efforts.39




38 For Taft's action on the Knowland Bill, see Congress, Senate, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., Congressional
Record (30 June 1947), 7880; For the other bills that were buried in committee, see Congress, Senate,
80th Cong., 1st Sess., Congressional Record, (Multiple Dates), 42, 43, 46, 125, 263, 817, 5397, 5815,
5818,7116,7186,8758, 10882.

39 Congress, Senate, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., Congressional Record (20 November 1947), A4264-5.