A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond (11 page)

O
FFICE OF
S
ENATOR
S
TROM
T
HURMOND
217 R
USSELL
S
ENATE
B
UILDING
W
ASHINGTON
, D.C. 20515

September 30, 2002

Mr. James Kincaid
c/o Simon & Schuster Publishers

My dear Mr. Kincaid:

I regrettably misplaced your address, along with your letter. A quick e-mail (I hate e-mail; it is not private) to Martin (Snell, the editor at Simon and Schuster) gave me your name. He also gave me your address, but, for many reasons I won’t enter into here, I think it best to correspond through him. I can only hope that you will respect my wishes in this matter. They are, needless to say, the Senator’s wishes.

As for the points, as you call them, you raise:

1. The work will be ever faithful to its title. Senator Thurmond feels, and I concur that traditional ideas on genre (I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your little lecture, however inaccurate) do not apply here.

2. You will regard my voice on these matters as coincident with that of the Senator. That way there will be no confusion whatever and we will all know where we are. I will not say that your way of putting point number 2 was impertinent.

3. We are glad to hear that you will be prompt. You must understand, though it is not clear from your letter that understanding of this sort will lie in your way, that the Senator is the one who is busy. He is, after all, the Senior Senator, THE Senior Senator, and thus just two heart attacks away from the Presidency. A schedule? You can take your schedule and stick it right up some dog’s curly ass! I don’t mean to say that this matter is not negotiable.

4. Never!

Do you ever get back this way, Jim? It is Jim, isn’t it? It would be a pleasure to show you around here and convince you—I’m sure I could—that not all Washingtonians are stuffy!

Fondlely,
Blue

Interoffice Memo

October 4, 2002

Hey Percival,

Blue? Is that his nickname or something? Anyhow, look at the copy of his latest. Can he be sane? I gather you disapproved of my letter to him. You were right.

And who is this Snell guy we got as an editor? He have any authority?

You suppose this is a hoax? You seen any money yet?

I’d sort of like to get started on this, wouldn’t you? I mean, this thing has me up nights thinking—but thinking about what? You know what I mean? If I knew what to think about, I wouldn’t worry so much. As it is, I don’t know when I’ve worried so much. Are you worried too?

If you used e-mail this would be easier. I don’t mean to complain, but it does seem cumbersome writing notes, especially when we’re right here in the same place, sort of. I could teach you how to do it—or, on second thought, somebody else could.

But that’s not pressing. What is pressing is what this Blue character has in mind. Do you think I should just go to Washington and see him? Do you want to go? Should we go together? Actually, I’m not sure I want to go alone, what with him offering to show me how unstuffy he is. Maybe he’d tie me up and have his way with me or something—or kill me, maybe.

But I’d almost rather he’d do that than leave us hanging. Don’t you feel that way too?

Jim

Memo: Snell to McCloud

October 7, 2002

McCloud:

The company does not have a Halloween party, but that does not mean parties are disallowed or anything. What do you say?

As for Wilkes, tell me more fully what you told him about masturbating. I don’t see how I can help unless I have all the details. If you’d rather not discuss such things with me, fine; but I must say, I do not know why you would share something with Wilkes, whom you’ve never met, and withhold it from me, who is close to you in terms of where our offices are—if in no other way, though I rather thought…never mind.

When is he visiting?

Perhaps you could meet him halfway. Do your parents live about halfway? That’d be one plan. Meet him at your parents’ place. Are your parents still alive? Do your parents have a cat?

Remember, the idea is for you to find out about Wilkes, not vice versa. I thought I had made that clear. You aren’t looking to go half-time with Vendetti, are you?

Mart

F
ROM THE
D
ESK OF
P
ERCIVAL
E
VERETT

October 7, 2002

Jim—

Take a nap.

Didn’t you mention some other project you were working on? One of those Victorian writers? Maybe you should keep that alive, vary your interests some. There is such a thing as over-dedication, you know.

All things will come to us, if we wait. I sure don’t want to rush Strom. He can’t stand much rush, is my guess. Wouldn’t want to be responsible for killing him, not directly responsible.

So just hang tight. They’ll send us some stuff when they’re ready.

Did you see that student who lodged the complaint about you? Just be sure you have a witness when you talk with her, and don’t threaten her or anything.

P

O
FFICE OF
S
ENATOR
S
TROM
T
HURMOND
217 R
USSELL
S
ENATE
B
UILDING
W
ASHINGTON
, D.C. 20515

To: Percival Everett and James Kincaid (just one copy each)

From: Barton Wilkes

Date: October 14, 2002

I figured it was best to send a copy of everything to both of you. That way, it wouldn’t look as if I were favoring one of you over the other. Also, it wouldn’t look as if I gave a damn what your internal relations might be. Just so long as you produce results that meet the Senator’s demands, I don’t care if you are mortal enemies, lovers, locked in a custody battle, contenders for the light-heavyweight crown, married, operating an auto parts store together, or father and daughter. I’m both easy with and indifferent to your workings, writerly and otherwise. On the other hand, I am not made of stone.

Here are some historical materials that the Senator plans to use.

What he’d like you to do is write them up as you plan to write things up, just so he can see how you do things.

These are very short snippetty things, just so he can see. You understand.

So please write them up, using whatever methods you have worked out mutually, and send them back.

FIRST DOCUMENT:

An Address of Delegates of the State Convention of the Colored People of South Carolina to the White Inhabitants of South Carolina—1865

Here are a few points excerpted from the first official document of its kind I can locate. It was published in the
New York Daily Tribune
, November 29, 1865. Please notice the date and think of this remarkable document as representing the deliberate thoughts of men newly freed and thus subject to all the raptures of what they certainly regarded as victory.

This document, in other words, we can think of, justly, as representing the most elevated wishes of those colored people, flushed with triumph and set upon making what they felt they had reason to see as fair demands, demands that a bloody and most abominable war had been fought to secure.

In other words, this is what the colored people wanted. Uncorrupted by what came later, this is what they wanted. Further, these are the terms in which they expressed exactly what it was they wanted. They didn’t want something else. They wanted this.

Prior to the influx of carpetbaggers and other interested scoundrels from the North, of corrupt Northern politicians and unscrupulous businessmen with morals low enough to allow them to work on the simplicity and ignorance of the colored people, prior to all that, this is what colored people wanted and how they wanted it.

Think of these things.

The address from these delegates begins by saying they have met together to “devise ways and means which may, through the blessing of God, tend to our improvement, elevation, and progress, fully believing that our cause is one which commends itself to the hearts of all good men.”

While I do not wish to bias your work, or control it, Everett/Kincaid, I do wish to draw your attention to the Senator’s feelings that these sentiments, uncontaminated by revisionist lies, are such that do honor to the colored men who composed them and to all the white people of South Carolina, the vast majority, who were fully ready to join in devising ways and means tending to the improvement and progress of the colored people. The Senator’s own career—though he is too modest to say this—has been directed by the very same goals announced by these newly freed slaves so long ago. The true feelings of the South, in other words, have not been the feelings of colored people or of white people but of PEOPLE. Senator Thurmond has always stressed that unanimity and worked to preserve and further it. It is only the cynical meddlings of Northerners, who used their simulated sympathy for the colored man to advance Northern interests, that obscured and misdirected the unity that was there from the very day the War ended.

The document, which we might as well say represents the uncontaminated wishes of all Southern colored people in 1865, goes on:

“We fully recognize the truth of the maxim, ‘The gods help those who help themselves.’”

That is, they simply wanted the opportunity to develop their domestic and commercial lives by helping themselves. Unfortunately, this was not allowed to happen, due to Northern “helpers.”

Finally, they summarize their view most sensibly:

“We simply ask that we shall be recognized as men; that there be no obstructions placed in our way; that the same laws which govern
white men
shall govern
black men
; that we have the right of trial by a jury of our
peers
; that schools be established for the education of
colored children
as well as white, and that the advantages of both colors shall, in this respect, be equal; that no impediments be put in the way of our acquiring homesteads for ourselves and our people; that, in short, we be dealt with as others are—in equity and justice.”