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→1930s: hardline New Deal politics, diatribes against anti-lynching legislation
Bilbo was a leader among other [[racist]] Democrats, including the [[Exalted Cyclops]] [[Robert Byrd]]. He was known during the 1930s as a hardline rubber stamp for President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] agenda, gaining attention in 1935 for feuding with Sen. Long.<ref name=fleegler,pp.7-8/> According to Robert L. Fleegler, he "amassed a strong progressive voting record, supporting New Deal legislation such as public housing that gave many southern representatives pause."
Bilbo was a leader among other [[racist]] Democrats, including the [[Exalted Cyclops]] [[Robert Byrd]]. He was known during the 1930s as a hardline rubber stamp for President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] agenda, gaining attention in 1935 for feuding with Sen. Long.<ref name=fleegler,pp.7-8/> According to Robert L. Fleegler, he "amassed a strong progressive voting record, supporting New Deal legislation such as public housing that gave many southern representatives pause."
In a 1938 filibuster against anti-[[lynching]] legislation, the Wagner–Van Nuys Act introduced by Northern Democratic senators Robert F. Wagner and Frederick Van Nuys, Bilbo disparaged NAACP leader Walter F. White as a "flat-nosed Ethiopian" and said on the [[Senate]] floor that the bill would "open the floodgates of [[hell]] in [[the South]]" by encouraging [[black]] men to rape white women.<ref>"Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, p. 9.</ref> Although most Southern Democratic senators opposed anti-lynching legislation on veiled arguments without overt race-baiting, Bilbo notably employed demagogic propaganda.
In a 1938 filibuster against anti-[[lynching]] legislation, the Wagner–Van Nuys Act introduced by Northern Democratic senators Robert F. Wagner and Frederick Van Nuys, Bilbo disparaged NAACP leader Walter F. White as a "flat-nosed Ethiopian" and said on the [[Senate]] floor that the bill would "open the floodgates of [[hell]] in [[the South]]" by encouraging [[black]] men to rape white women.<ref name=fleegler,p.9>"Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, p. 9.</ref> Although most Southern Democratic senators opposed anti-lynching legislation on veiled arguments without overt race-baiting, Bilbo notably employed demagogic propaganda.
Even after Bilbo's initial advocacy of deporting blacks to Africa, a move directly motivated and inspired by the activities of black nationalists including Marcus Garvey,<ref name=fleegler,p.9/><ref>Wade, Eve. [https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/exhibitions/item_of_the_month/iotm_july_2014.html Theodore G. Bilbo and the Greater Liberia Act]. ''The University of Southern Mississippi''. Retrieved December 18, 2022.</ref> national media outlets gave barely, if any public coverage. ''The New York Times'' was the only prominent publication to mention it, in one of its back-page stories without providing comment.<ref name=fleegler,p.10>"Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, p. 10.</ref> When he subsequently introduced formal legislation on the repatriation of blacks to Africa, Bilbo extolled Nazi racial theories:
{{cquote|The Germans appreciate the importance of race values. They understand that racial improvement is the greatest asset that any country can have. . . They know, as few other nations have realized, that the impoverishment of race values contributes more to the impairment and destruction of a civilization than any other agency.|||Bilbo, May 24, 1938}}
The only newspaper on the national level which gave any significant coverage was ''[[Newsweek]]'', which described the senator as "finally cut loose with his first unprovoked outburst of rabble rousing," and said of the overall lack of press attention, "Hardly a newspaper reported it."<ref name=fleegler,p.10/> However, the ''Newsweek'' article failed to mention Bilbo's praise of Nazi racial ideology.
===1940s: re-election, furthered bigotry===
===1940s: re-election, furthered bigotry===