White segregationists rhetorically reframed racial exclusion as protection of community integrity

Evidence

Alarmed by the approach of black Atlantans, civic groups around Adamsville asked the WSMDC for protection. Tellingly, they all used the language of “community” in their pleas for help. “We are deeply concerned with the continued infiltration of Negroes,” wrote the West Manor Civic Club. “This movement is beginning to pose as a threat to some adjoining white communities.” Other homeowners’ groups agreed. The Adamsville Civic Club, for example, wanted “a new ‘Gentleman’s Agreement Line’ that will respect the integrity of the Adamsville community.” Following their lead, neighborhood agencies made a similar appeal. The local parent-teacher association and Women’s Thrift Club, for instance, asked the WSMDC to “protect the integrity of the Adamsville community and the interests of its citizens.” The Adamsville American Legion Post and its Ladies’ Auxiliary stressed the investments residents had made in the area. “[T]his community of Adamsville is almost entirely composed of home owners who established residence here for the purpose of bringing up families and entering their children in white churches and schools,” they explained. In a similar vein, the churches themselves begged for help. “In the interest of Christianity and fair play,” the pastor and lay leader of Bethel Methodist asked for “a new ‘Gentleman’s Agreement Line.’ ” Likewise, the pastor and clerk of the Brownwood Baptist Church wrote to say they were “deeply concerned about our community, our Churches, School, our homes, that the people have worked so hard to have. As you know,” they added ominously, “the colored people are moving closer week by week.” — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 193

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to suburban homeowners-association politics and color-blind conservatism the reader is tracking, also to Avila’s and selfsame ‘community values’ framing in later suburban movements. — connects to: One segregation-era judge framed resistance as justifying policy through race-neutral socioeconomic language. — Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Origins of “Color-Blind”…, 102; Segregationist leaders reframed their activism as lawful peacemaking, not bigotry — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 137; White resistance groups recast themselves as citizens with rights to justify segregation. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 169 (+11 more)
• DEFINE: Documents how ‘community integrity’ became a code for racial exclusion long before color-blind rhetoric matured.

Broader Connections

• Segregationists framed racial exclusion as defense of churches, schools, and lodges. #exemplifies (0.95) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 204
• Segregationist neighborhood defense was rhetorically recast as apolitical community preservation with race unspoken #expands (0.92) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 194
• Excluded whites reframed their segregationism as a defense of beleaguered rights #expands (0.85) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 102
• Segregationists understood resistance as defending their own rights and freedoms #exemplifies (0.82) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 31
• Respectable segregationists framed exclusion of blacks as a symmetry of individual choice #expands (0.80) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 372
• Color-blindness rhetoric was used to preserve white privilege #expands (0.78)