Byrd held the Democratic Party together
Dabney describes the vital importance of Byrd to preventing an implosion of the Democratic Party. Byrd ran for reelection in 1956 because without him at the helm, the party would splinter ideologically.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Virginius Dabney, June 10-13, 1975. Interview A-0311-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- WILLIAM H. TURPIN:
-
Did you support him in 1956, I believe, 1957, when he talked about not
running for re-election. He announced that he would not run for
re-election in '57, somewhere in there, and then after a few months, he
came back and started running, said that he would run for re-election.
Did you express to him at that time support? I find that people who were
even his arch-enemies generally asking or were concerned that he would
run for re-election then.
- VIRGINIUS DABNEY:
-
I was glad that he ran for re-election. I think that we could list the
reasons why he did it and you may want me to comment on that. There
were, I think, two main ones. One was that it would split the
organization wide open if he didn't. He was really worried because John
Battle and Bill Tuck were squaring off to run for his seat, and Battle
was from the more liberal side of the organization and Tuck was the
ultra-conservative, and they were taking up sides. The thing was jelling
in these two directions and polarizing. There was going to be one hell
of a row between these two factions and that would not have been to
Byrd's liking at all. He had been the friend of
both men and he persuaded Mrs. Byrd to let him reconsider and go back.
The other thing was that he really was urged by people all over the
United States not to get out of public life.
- WILLIAM H. TURPIN:
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Did you urge him not to get out.
- VIRGINIUS DABNEY:
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Yes, I did.
