A Steel Magnolia in the Family

Dear Boo and Bubble,

This is a story Grandpa Captain wants to tell you about his grandmother Lucile Tally.  She played a very important role in forming his principles and faith as an adult.

“We need civil rights in this country.” A forthright statement that today is a foregone conclusion.  But in 1948 when Hubert Humphrey spoke those words at the Democratic National Convention, they set off a firestorm that raged across the political landscape of the South. 

Over 80 years had passed since the end of the Civil War yet the wound of losing had no more healed in the South than if it had been the day before.  The reaction to the war manifested itself in the populist philosophy of States Rights – a stance that railed against the interference of the Federal government in matters within the borders of a state.  Even though African Americans gained their freedom from slavery because of the war, they continued to be denied full participation in the society, particularly in the South.  They could not vote or access public facilities or engage in a fair judicial system.  The locally codified rules of segregation dictated that even though they were no longer slaves, they were not citizens.  To suggest, as Humphrey did, that civil rights should be extended to them was heresy against States Rights. 

The reaction at the convention was swift and dramatic.  Led by Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the delegations from all the southern states walked out of the hall amidst much anger.  Waving state signs to show their solidarity, they shouted “Dixiecrat, Dixiecrat”, the name of a new party they intended to form and nominate Thurmond as its candidate for president.  In doing so, they hoped to foil President Harry Truman’s bid for re-election against Republican Thomas Dewey.  This would be payback for the treason they felt at his stand that civil rights for blacks was inevitable, right and in the best interest of the United States.

In the middle of the turmoil on the convention floor stood your diminutive, grey haired, great-great grandmother Lucile.  She was a very prominent Democrat from Florida and in June just the year before had met with President Truman in the White House.  At the convention, she was serving as a national committeewoman and Florida which in that day and time was an extraordinary accomplishment for a woman.  Sensing the agitation from the other southern states was about to infect the Florida delegation, she hastily organized a response with another delegate.  Together, they grabbed the sign designating Florida’s place on the convention floor and when the state’s delegates tried to leave and join the “Dixiecrat” parade, they physically held them in.  It gave the state’s Democratic leadership enough time to calm everyone down and talk them through the situation.  Florida voted to stay in the convention and not officially become a part of the “Dixiecrat” movement.

Lucile was what is known as a “Steel Magnolia.”  She had every bit of the gentility and charm of a southern lady, but her spine was of steel especially when it came to her family, her faith and her politics.  There was no equivocation when it came to fairness and, even though her understanding of African Americans had not evolved to full acceptance as equals, she knew that it was inherently wrong to deny them their civil rights. 

Many political pundits of the day didn’t give Truman a chance and some newspapers across the country prematurely printed headlines declaring “Dewey Defeats Truman.”  In the end, Truman won with over 24,000,000 votes, 28 states and 308 electoral votes.  Florida was one of those states.  Strom Thurmond and the “Dixiecrats” garnered only four states – South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

It took almost twenty more years for the Civil Rights Act to pass Congress.  Lucile lived to see it.  By then, she had retired officially from politics.  She continued to be active in her community of Tavares, Florida, selling insurance, managing orange groves and being the matriarch of her family which had grown from a core of three sons to a brood with nine grandchildren.  She died in 1971, but the nuances of her influence surface regularly in your extended family, especially your Grandpa Captain who took up the political banner years later, serving as the Chairman of the Democratic Party for Cherokee County in South Carolina and as a legislator in the SC House of Representatives.  The irony was never lost on him that he publicly served the very state that led the revolt in 1948 to form the “Dixiecrats” when his grandmother Lucille stood firm, sign in hand, and held the Florida delegation in the convention.