 "Photo: Jerry Rogers/Echo Staff Photographer")
During the Civil Rights movement, black leaders and white politicians faced a dilemma. How could they work together to overcome this country’s racial divide?
Black leaders could be accused by others as “collaborating” with whites, and white politicians could see their careers ended by their often racist electorate.
This situation, according to a book authored by Artemesia Stanberry, an assistant professor of political science at NCCU, and Glen Browder, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, led to what the authors call “stealth politics.”
It was politics in which moderate white politicians and black leaders worked together behind the scenes to solve seemingly unsolvable problems.
This is explored in their book, “Stealth Reconstruc-tion: An Untold Story of Racial Politics in Recent Southern History.”
“Stealth Reconstruc-tion” adds nuance to the common vision of how the Civil Rights movement played out in Southern politics. It was not simply a standoff between whites and blacks.
In a January C-Span appearance, Browder, who is white, described stealth politics as “biracial politics practiced in the South between white southern politicians and black leaders.”
In the C-Span appearance, Browder spoke from first-hand experience. As Alabama’s secretary of state, he received a court mandate to hire black poll workers to ensure fair elections.
Knowing the resistance that whites would have to the specific mandate to hire blacks, he downplayed that side of the mandate and publically argued that the state of Alabama needed clean, open and honest elections.
To achieve this, he maintained, the state needed to increase its supply of workers. The “mandate” to hire more blacks was left under the wraps.
Stanberry, who worked for Browder in 1996 while he served in Congress, said she has been interested in politics all of her adult life.
“In 1984, when Jesse Jackson ran for President and Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro as his vice presidential candidate, it was the first time a female had been selected,” she said.
“That stuck with me for some reason. That was an exciting year for me.”
Stanberry and Browder collaborated on “Stealth Politics” for four years.
Stanberry said that Browder contacted her about working together on the book while teaching at at Prairie View University.
The book, published by NewSouth Books, was released in January.
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