much as in the movement. I can think of numerous important people—white and black working together—who quietly laid foundations for my career and changes in our area. I doubt that they knew at the time just how productive and far-reaching their stealthy actions were for biracial progress in the South.[24]
Without doubt, the most compelling witness to the stealth concept is storied civil rights attorney Fred Gray of Tuskegee, Alabama. Gray’s role in the civil rights movement stretches beyond Alabama, to broader Southern politics, and even to the core of American democracy. He represented Mrs. Rosa Parks in integrating Montgomery City buses; he was the first civil rights lawyer for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; he litigated representational discrimination through Gomillion v. Lightfoot; he successfully challenged Alabama governors John Patterson and George Wallace and various state agencies on important civil rights issues; he fought the United States government for justice for the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study; he was one of the first African American legislators in Alabama since Reconstruction; and he was the moving force in establishing the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center. A mild-talking but determined civil rights champion who is still active, Gray adds unimpeachable testimony to the stealth thesis:
Yes, the thesis is valid and any research that can be presented will do a good service for our understanding of Southern politics and history. The civil rights movement began long before the 1950s and extended beyond the 1960s, and a lot of people don’t realize that it took many forms—not just big legal cases and dramatic protests against segregated buses, schools, and facilities. Most white politicians and black leaders didn’t even talk to each other during the 1970s, so those of us who could work together did some things quietly and in back rooms. I fought in the courts for most of my life, but a lot of good things happened, legislatively and otherwise, through this kind of politicking among practical politicians.[25]
We will hear much more “stealth talk” from other politicians and activists throughout this book.
The Practitioners of Stealth Leadership
We contend that the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s produced practical political leaders and activist allies like Browder, Reed, Arrington, and Gray who—working quietly, independently, at various levels throughout the region—sometimes changed the nature, rules, players, issues, and outcomes of the Southern political game.
More specifically, we propose that many Southern white leaders successfully combined objective and subjective elements of stealth politics in public service. In the first place, they got elected in majority-white districts with significant black constituencies. Secondly, they personally engaged in biracial politics and demonstrated substantial support for minority interests in their public service. Finally, throughout these processes, they functionally juggled the racial realities of Southern society. In sum, we envision leaders who possessed valuable perspectives and skills, who quietly and effectively worked with community activists, partisans, and miscellaneous operatives of all persuasions, and, who, collectively, helped reconstruct campaigns and governance in the South.
Of course, there are problems in generalizing about all public officials of that era and in that area. Clearly, Southern politicians did not decide in mass to practice a new, more progressive version of Southern politics. Many simply continued as traditional politicians, or switched parties.
Even among reconstructive leaders, there was tremendous diversity. Although virtually all were Democrats, they ranged ideologically from very conservative to moderate to relatively liberal; and they displayed varying degrees of caution or brashness in their racial politics. Some went about their business without outward, obvious design; others purposefully practiced a carefully calculated biracialism. Actually, a few seemed to preach and practice their racial progressivism so openly that it is impossible to label them “stealth politicians.”
So it is hard to articulate a perfect model or draw hard lines among different individuals and representational styles. Nevertheless, we believe that our thesis is an accurate generalization of important developments during that period; and we are confident that stealth politics will prove to be a useful framework for understanding biracial relations in a reconstructing regional system.
For thematic reasons, we exclude from our thesis more prominent historical figures such as President Lyndon Johnson (a Texan whose bold leadership and earthy populism were vital to important civil rights changes in the South), the wave of “New South” officials such as Georgian Jimmy Carter and Arkansan Bill Clinton (who, along with numerous state executives openly championed social change against the conservative current of their white constituents), and confrontational activists such as South Carolinian Jesse Jackson (and many others who took to the streets in their fight against racial discrimination). These leaders generally played on the stage of big issues, to a national audience, and with substantial media celebrity; their service is inappropriate for consideration because it is impossible to dissect their public/private lives in a manner meaningful to our analysis.
Finally, we exclude those Southern politicians who have famously wandered a political maze of racist politics, convenient conversions, and electoral success. Their careers are interesting and sometimes sympathetic and sincere (take the latter years of George Wallace, for example), but we are interested in leaders who fairly consistently pursued the positive politics and philosophy of stealthy biracial leadership.
The ranks of leaders within the scope of our stealth thesis include some prominent players, but we are interested mainly in their private leadership and political style away from the glare of the media, beyond the gilding reach of their public relations machinations. More specifically, we think that reconstructive action likely took place inside their political campaigns and behind closed doors of their public offices, where they employed their personalities, skills, and resources on behalf of their careers and public service, where self-interest, noble principle, and raucous exchange translated into practical politics and moderate/progressive governance.
The Tricky Essence Of Stealth Politics
Earlier, we pitched stealth leadership and politics, simply and briefly, as a calculated, constructive mixture of quietness and endeavor regarding racial challenges and changes of that period. The essence of that mixture was a representational style in which the public official projected a broadly popular and effective public image on conventional, communitarian issues, thus allowing flexibility in dealing constructively with contentious racial issues in a society historically beset with racial problems. Stealth leaders, working with allies in the new black constituency, were able to move Southern politics in relatively progressive directions of responsive service and moderate policy.
The complex and difficult work of these leaders required that they balance their progressive inclinations with the practicalities of Southern political life. Besides struggling with their own personal angst, these key officials and activists often had to deal with the demands of a stubbornly conservative white majority and an increasingly active and liberal black minority in a bitterly polarized or potentially polarizing environment.
Consequently, most of these politicians charted a centrist policy course, diverse relationships, and carefully selected activities in order to deal with their racial problems.
It is also worth noting the varying approaches among our stealth leaders. Some conducted “stealth by design,” i.e., discreet, separate activities structured so as to solicit minority support without fanning fires of resentment among the majority. For example, they sometimes invited and accompanied national black leaders to local black events; but they didn’t put out press releases or hold news conferences about these activities. Others engaged in biracial pursuits without such deftly calculated motives and plans, perhaps inadvertently, unintentionally, simply by chance—or what might be called “stealth by coincidence.” They proceeded on a quiet, practical course with moderated message; and they treated black and white in a sincere manner that mitigated their biracial politicking.
It does not make much sense, of course, to make too big a deal out of the difference between “designed stealth” and “coincidental stealth.” These are simply specific constructs that help us comprehend the broader, theoretical concept of stealth politics; it may be that this