The Citizens’ Council, the official paper of the Citizens’ Councils of America, contains a wealth of information for anyone interested in point of view of white Southerners who were opposed to a racially integrated society.
The February 1957 issue contained the start of a series of articles called A Manual for Southerners. It opens with this editor’s note:
With this issue, we begin the publication in serial form of “A Manual for Southerners” Lest our friends in other sections of the country feel that we are becoming too ardent “Confederates,” let us hasten to say that we are not. The truth is that for too long Southern children have been “progressively educated” to scorn their origins and the reasons for our bi-racial society.
“A Manual for Southerners” seeks to correct this.
The portion appearing in this issue is for use in grades 3 and 4. However, there are many adults who might benefit from a review of these fundamental truths.
This first installment is reproduced in its entirety below. I found it rather hard to stomach reading the whole thing, particularly when I focus on the fact that this is meant for 8 or 9 year old children.
Rules for Southerners
GOD MADE FOUR RACESGod made all of the people in the world. He made some of them white. He made some of them black. He made some of them yellow. And He made some of them red.
GOD PUT EACH RACE BY ITSELFGod put the white people off by themselves. He put the yellow, red, and black people by themselves. God wanted the white people to live alone. And He wanted the colored people to live alone. That is why He put them off by themselves.
WHITE MEN BUILT AMERICASome white people came to America. America is where you live. It is your country. The white men built America for you. They want you to have a free country that you can grow up in.
AMERICA IS THE LAND OF FREEDOMDo you know what the name of your country is? It is called the United States of America. We love the United States. It is the land of Freedom.
YOU MAKE YOUR RULESFreedom means that you can choose your own rules. We have to have rules to live by. Do you help make rules in your classroom? You and your friends help make the rules you use in school.
WHITE PEOPLE LIKE TO BE FREEWhite men built the United States so they could make their rules. They could not make their rules in the country they came from. So they built America and made their own rules. They wanted to be free.
II. AMERICA HAS FOUR PARTSThe United States of America has four parts. There is the part in the North. There is the part in the East. There is the part in the West. And there is the part in the South. Our country is very big. And white men built it all.
YOU LIVE IN THE SOUTHDo you know what part of our country you live in? You live in the South. You know you live in Mississippi. Mississippi is a state in the South. The South is a big part of our country.
YOU ARE A SOUTHERNERDo you know what Mississippi people are called? We are called Southerners. Southerners are people who live in the South. You are a Southerner. You live in the South.
GEORGE WASHINGTON HELPED BUILD AMERICAHave you ever heard about George Washington? He was a brave and honest white man. George Washington helped build our country. Can you guess what part of our Country he came from? Let me tell you.
GEORGE WASHINGTON A SOUTHERNERGeorge Washington came from the South. He was a Southerner just like you. He was so brave and honest the people asked him to be President. So he was our first President. Now you know where our first one came from. He came from the South.
SOUTHERNERS LIKE TO BE FREEMany people from the South helped build our country. They made it strong and free. You want to help keep it strong and free. We love our country. In our country we are free.
WHITE MEN BUILT AMERICA
White men built our country, it was hard work. It is not easy to build a new country. The white men cut away big forests. They did not have big homes like yours. The little boys and girls did not have nice schools Wild animals lived everywhere. It was not safe outside.
AMERICA WAS MADE STRONGThe red man is the Indian, You know what an Indian is. The red man fought the white man. But the white man won. He worked and worked. He wanted you to have a strong free country. It was not easy to build.
WHITES AND NEGROES LIVE APARTThe black man is the Negro. You have seen Negroes all of your life. The Negro came to our country after the white man did. The white man has always been kind to the Negro. But the white and black people do not live together in the South.
III. WHITES, BLACKS DIFFERENT RACESDo you know why the White and Negro people do not live together? It is because we are two different races. You will ask, “What are races?” You may know already.
Races of men are different colored men. God made the different races. He made a White race, a Black race, a Red race, and a Yellow race. And he put the races in different lands. Your Bible tells you all about the races of man.
GOD MADE DIFFERENT MENGod did not make only men different. He made different animals, too. The horse is different from the cow. The cat is different from the dog. He made the birds different, too. The Blue Bird is different from the Red Bird. The chicken is different from the duck.
GOD LIKES DIFFERENT THINGSGod made so many different things. He must like for things to be different. And we must keep things as God made them. Races of men are different colors. Some people do not think God made men different. But we know God did make men different.
BE PROUD OF YOUR RACEThe white people are very different from the black people. You can look at yourself and tell what race you belong to. If you are white, you belong to the White race. If you are black, you belong to the Negro race, You should be proud of your color and race. You should be proud because God made you white or black.
WHITE, BLACK PEOPLE DIFFERENTThe white and black people are different from each other In color. They are different in other ways, too. Have you ever looked at the way your nose is made? Have you looked at the kind of hair you have? Look at your eyes. Do you see how they are made? See your lips. How are they made?
IV. IT IS WRONG TO LIVE TOGETHERMost of the Negroes in our country live in the South. They know the white men in the South are their friend. White people live in peace with Negroes in the South. But white and black people do not live together in the South. We do not believe God wants us to live together. It is wrong to live together and mix our races.
Blue Birds do not live with Red Birds and mix themselves all up. Chickens do not live with ducks and mix themselves all up. They know they can not made alike. And they do not like to live together.
THE RACES LIKE TO LIVE ALONENegro people like to live by themselves. They like to go Negro doctors. They like to go to Negro schools. They like to live with their own race. And white people like to live with their own race, too.
WE DO NOT MIX RACES IN THE SOUTHNegroes and White people do not go to the same places together. We live in different parts of town. And we are kind to each other. This is called our Southern Way of Life. We do not mix our races, but we are kind to each other.
WE KEEP OUR RACES APARTYou do not go to the same schools. You do not swim in the same swimming pools. Negroes use their own bathrooms. They do not use the white people’s bathroom. The two races do not sit together on the city bus. If you are white, you go to a white man’s show. A Negro goes to his own show. We do not live side by side. The Negro has his own part of town to live in. This is the Southern Way of Life. This is the way Negroes and whites can live in the same land. We do not live together.
THE RACES LIVE IN PEACE WHEN THEY DON’T MIXThe Negro race and White race have lived in peace in the South. We live in peace because we do not live together. You would not be happy living together. Where the races live together, the people are not happy.
TRYING TO CHANGE THE SOUTHDo you know that some people in our country want the Negroes to live with the white people? These people want us to be unhappy. They say we must go to school together. They say we must swim together and use the bathrooms together. We do not want to do these things.
WE WOULD BE UNHAPPY IF WE CHANGEThese people who want us to be unhappy say we are not good if we don’t live together. But we know it is wrong to live together. We are different. And we would not be happy all mixed up together. God has made us different. And God knows best.
MIXING RACES MAKES AMERICA WEAK“Why do some people want us to live together?” you will ask? They want to make our country weak. If we are not happy, our strong and free country will grow weak. Did you know our country will grow weak if we mix our races? It will.
WE WANT A STRONG, FREE COUNTRYWe do not want our country to grow Weak. White men worked hard to build our country. We want to keep it strong and free.
Rules for Southerners - Images
This series of articles for children was very popular. Later issues of the newsletter included this item:
The Citizens’ Council Paper
The
Citizens’ Councils were a loose network of white supremacist organizations mostly found in the Southern United States. The first was formed on July 11, 1954 in Mississippi after the US Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that legal segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The groups initially focused on opposition to racial integration of schools, but they also supported segregation of all or most public facilities during the 1950s and 1960s. Members used severe intimidation tactics including economic boycotts, firing people from jobs, propaganda, and occasionally violence against civil-rights activists. [
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Source: The Citizens’ Council (Vol. 2, No. 4-6, January-March 1957) [PDF]
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