US Senator Bilbo Calls for Lynching of African-American Voters

Bilbo began his political career as early as 1908 and immediately established himself as a staunch racist and anti-Semite. In 1915, he was elected governor of Mississippi. In 1927, he was re-elected to the post. The New York Times wrote about him as follows: “Hypnotic in his power, a master of invective, and making astute use of his familiarity with the Bible, he swayed the white tenants, small planters, and the bankrupt with his assaults on Wall Street... His stronghold is the rural sections”.

Bilbo continued to pursue a racist policy in the United States Senate, being an opponent of the law banning lynching. He publicly declared his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan.

However, after the war, the ideas of earlier generations of southern authorities were already being met with opposition from white Americans. As was written in the Nation Journal on 7 July 1945, “Senator Bilbo’s exhibition last Thursday made it appear that at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives we had destroyed Hitler’s racial obscenity in Europe only to have it parade in all its shameless arrogance at the very centre of our democracy”.

A radio broadcast on 22 June 1946 was the last straw. In September 1946, human rights activists filed a complaint against Bilbo with the United States Senate. Two special committees investigated the charges against Bilbo. His remarks were publicly condemned. Furthermore, it was revealed that he had pocketed several thousand dollars from the funds donated to his campaign. On 3 January 1947, Bilbo was expelled from Congress. Six months later Theodore Bilbo died in a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In the film by Joel and Ethan Coen “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, the racist politician Stokes bears an obvious resemblance to Bilbo.

Source: 

Morgan, Chester M. Redneck Liberal: Theodore G. Bilbo and the New Deal, Louisiana State U. Press, 1985.