Theodore G. Bilbo Quotes

The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.

This problem, which exists because of the presence of … Negroes in this country, can be permanently solved only by the physical separation of the races or by resigning ourselves to total mongrelization resulting in the destruction of both the white and black races

There is a racist virus in the American blood stream...

While the old spiritual 'Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last' was sung by blacks in the hours following the Appomattox surrender, racism sadly continues to be a crippling national scourge.

The worst disease from which the society of our nation suffers is ... the treatment of the Negro.

One of the things that makes a Negro unpleasant to white folk is the fact that he suffers from their injustice. He is thus a standing rebuke to them.

Some days ago you doubtless read reports published in the newspapers of the country of the opening of a local United Service Organizations unit in Washington for service men and women, regardless of color. The stories published at the time noted the presence at the opening of outstanding officials and semi-officials of the United States, and indicated that they joined with others of both races in singing such songs as Let Me Call You Sweetheart. No member of this House has greater respect for our leaders than I, but one can be pardoned if he questions the wisdom of such officials participating in these festivities. I unhesitatingly brand that affair as a distinct disservice to the Negro race—one to which our sanction should not be given. Whatever the intent of those responsible for the creation of this particular U. S. O. unit, its continued operation can result only in the intensification of the race problem, with which we of the South must constantly struggle. The race problem is grave enough without deliberately aggravating it by promoting the intermingling of Negroes and whites on such occasions

The Problem We All Live With

To attempt to explain a system like segregation to a 6 year child is a very difficult thing.

On July 4, 1805, whites in Philadelphia drove blacks out of the square facing Independence Hall… On July 4, 1834, a white mob in New York City burned down the Broadway Tabernacle because of the anti-slavery and anti-racist views of the church leaders…. On July 4, 1935, a white mob in Cannan, New Hampshire destroyed a school that was open to blacks…

We never discuss race until something bad happens.

What whites cannot experience and may never understand is that no matter which side of the bed I chose to wake up on, I would still be a black man in the racially divisive America.

To the great majority of white Americans, the Negro problem has distinctly negative connotations. It suggests something difficult to settle and equally difficult to leave alone. It is embarrassing. It makes for moral uneasiness.

I know my destiny. I was born into animosity, bigotry and hatred. We had water for white folks, and water for coloured folks. White lines, black lines. I came from Beaufort in South Carolina, and it was tougher than Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

If white America is ready to extend complete democratic rights to colored people, there will be no race, no racial tension and no racial prejudice on either side, but we can be sure that any movement 'back to normalcy' in race relations will be bitterly resisted by colored people. It is now up to white America to make its choice...

Every institution where a number of the coloured races are, or can be drawn together, shall be broken up… If we destroy, or prevent the building of the nest, we shall not be liable to the incursions of the brood.

The most dreadful of all the evils that threaten the future of the United States arises from the presence of blacks on its soil.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

This is a contest between the white man’s hope and black evil.

These barbarities [American lynchings] have found many apologists, on the ground that the negroes are licentious and dishonest--as, indeed, many of them are. But who set them the example, and educated them in these vices? In too many cases the white population, and even their legal authorities.

There was no need to send Negro troops to Cuba …. It is criminal.

NO COLORED CLERKS IN COLORED NEIGHBORHOODS., STAY OUT!

I would not use the influence of my office to deter citizens from punishing that nigger brute. I would have gladly resigned as governor and gone to Honea Path and led the mob myself.

If you are black the only roads into the mainland of American life are through subservience, cowardice, and loss of manhood.

I don’t believe in Black majority rule ever—not even in 1000 years.