Senator Theodore "The Man" Bilbo truly hated blacks. An open member of the KKK, he filibustered anti-lynching laws, criticized the governor of his home state of Mississippi for using the National Guard to protect blacks, and thought that no blacks should be able to vote anywhere in the US. And yet, he was attracted to the ideas of Marcus Garvey, and actually won praise from him later in life. Why? Bilbo and Garvey agreed: Blacks shouldn't be in the American South. Obviously they had very different motivations, but the takeaway was the same. In 1938, Bilbo actually proposed removing 12 million blacks from America to Liberia at federal expense, ostensibly to alleviate the unemployment crisis of the Great Depression.
Obviously, this didn't go down. But, as is our alternate historian wont, let us ask what if it had? I think step one is making Bilbo just plain racist, not the level-60 omega racist that he was OTL. Being a Depression-era Mississippi politician, he's going to at least have to meet the baseline segregationist criteria, but let's not have him go beyond that. And once in Washington, perhaps he takes a softer line. Anyway, the Bilbster was a New Deal supporter. So let's look at how you can spin this: Bilbo is a popular New Dealer from a Southern state, where the New Deal ran into political trouble. He's proposing a plan that, in theory, lessens unemployment. He was supported by Marcus Garvey, and OTL other black organizations seemed to have distanced themselves from him not because of his idea, but because he presented it in such a hugely racist way. Which here is not the case. So there's a lot of political positives.
So could Bilbo get some federal funding to finance black Americans moving to Liberia? I don't know that the administration will really believe that it will help unemployment, but if it helps them get more votes from Southern whites in exchange for those of blacks (who all too often were prevented from voting anyway), they might go for it. I think it's ASB to imagine 12 million people going there, but there might be movement in the thousands, at least, voluntary and otherwise. Effects on Liberia, US civil rights, desegregation? Thoughts?
[Disclaimer: Obviously I'm not posting this because I think Bilbo's idea was awesome, I just think it's an interesting discussion. As far as I'm concerned, Bilbo is well suited by his legacy today: His statue removed from the Mississippi capitol rotunda, and used as a coat rack by the Black Caucus.]
Obviously, this didn't go down. But, as is our alternate historian wont, let us ask what if it had? I think step one is making Bilbo just plain racist, not the level-60 omega racist that he was OTL. Being a Depression-era Mississippi politician, he's going to at least have to meet the baseline segregationist criteria, but let's not have him go beyond that. And once in Washington, perhaps he takes a softer line. Anyway, the Bilbster was a New Deal supporter. So let's look at how you can spin this: Bilbo is a popular New Dealer from a Southern state, where the New Deal ran into political trouble. He's proposing a plan that, in theory, lessens unemployment. He was supported by Marcus Garvey, and OTL other black organizations seemed to have distanced themselves from him not because of his idea, but because he presented it in such a hugely racist way. Which here is not the case. So there's a lot of political positives.
So could Bilbo get some federal funding to finance black Americans moving to Liberia? I don't know that the administration will really believe that it will help unemployment, but if it helps them get more votes from Southern whites in exchange for those of blacks (who all too often were prevented from voting anyway), they might go for it. I think it's ASB to imagine 12 million people going there, but there might be movement in the thousands, at least, voluntary and otherwise. Effects on Liberia, US civil rights, desegregation? Thoughts?
[Disclaimer: Obviously I'm not posting this because I think Bilbo's idea was awesome, I just think it's an interesting discussion. As far as I'm concerned, Bilbo is well suited by his legacy today: His statue removed from the Mississippi capitol rotunda, and used as a coat rack by the Black Caucus.]
