Changes

===1930s: hardline New Deal politics, diatribes against anti-lynching legislation===

===1930s: hardline New Deal politics, diatribes against anti-lynching legislation===

[[File:FDRoosevelt by Perskie.png|thumb|left|210px|Bilbo was one of President Roosevelt's strongest supporters.]]

[[File:FDRoosevelt by Perskie.png|thumb|left|210px|Bilbo was one of President Roosevelt's strongest supporters.]]

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."

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 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.

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.

====Association with Robert Byrd, KKK membership revealed====

====Association with Robert Byrd, KKK membership revealed====

In his book When ''Jim Crow Met John Bull'',  Graham Smith referred to a letter Bilbo received from the Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd when on the 1945 controversy raging over the idea of racially integrating the military.  

Bilbo was a leader among other [[racist]] Democrats, including the [[Exalted Cyclops]] [[Robert Byrd]]. In his book ''When Jim Crow Met John Bull'',  Graham Smith referred to a letter Bilbo received from the Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd when on the 1945 controversy raging over the idea of racially integrating the military.  

{{cquote|Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.}}

{{cquote|Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.}}