… and the South Shall Rise Again Sometime Later. The South’s 1960 Premature Ejacu… (finish the word yourownself. I fear the Comment Spam.)
11-30: James Knight of four Texas electors chosen in the general election election said yesterday he had received three letters urging him to join a movement to keep Senator Kennedy from becoming President. Mr. Knight said one of the letters was signed by Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi, another by ML Harris – a Montgommery, Alabama attorney, and a third by two Alabama electors.
He said the letters asked him to join a a “Southern Revolt” by backing candidates other than Kennedy and Johnson. One of the letters, Mr. Knight said, urged him to vote for a ticket comprised of Senator Harry F Byrd of Virginia and Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
12-13: Mississippi’s eight and Alabama’s six unpledged presidential electors agreed after a five hour session today to vote for Senator Harry F Byrd in an effort to bar John F Kennedy from the presidency. The fourteen electors said in a statement that they had not chosen a vice presidential candidate because that would do no good. The 840 word statement laid down an ultimatum. It said:
“Whether such a man [Byrd] will be inaugurated as President or not depends upon whether or not the people of the South, who have expressed their dedication to the principles of Constitutional government and the right of a state to determine for itself the questions of segregation and freedom of association are sincere in the continued expression of such dedication.” […]
The statement said that if Kennedy were denied a victory in the Electoral College the matter would go to the US House of Representatives, where the choice would be among the top three voted in the Electoral College. Once there, the statement continued, Senator Byrd would win because “it is incredible that any congressman from any of the Southern States could refuse to cast his vote and that of his state as a unit for a Southerner such as Senator Byrd, who has been recognized over the years as one of the strongest champions of the principles of constitutional government.”
“In this situation, the Republican delegation recognizing the inevitable defeat of Nixon and being fundamentally opposed to the liberalism of Senator Kennedy– would join the Southern Congressional delegations in assuring the election of Senator Byrd. Successful oppostion to vice presidential candidates Lyndon Johnson or Henry Cabot Lodge would be impossible because the Senate chooses the vice president from the top two in the list.”
The electors met in a session closed to the public, but open to WJ Simmons of Jackson, editor of a pro-segregation monthly newspaper, The Citizens Council. Also present at the meeting were some segregationist assholes from some organization of the same name as that assfart segregationist newspaper.