Ronald Reagan's 1980 States' rights speech

Neshoba County Fair Grandstand. Ronald Reagan's speech was addressed to the audience from this grandstand.

As part of his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan made an appearance at the Neshoba County Fair where he gave a speech on August 3, 1980. The speech drew attention for his use of the phrase "states' rights". Critics claim that Reagan's choice of location for the speech (the fairgrounds were just a few miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town associated with the 1964 murders of civil rights workers) was evidence of racial bias.

During his speech, Reagan said:

I still believe the answer to any problem lies with the people. I believe in states' rights and I believe in people doing as much as they can for themselves at the community level and at the private level. I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment.

He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them." The use of the phrase was seen by some as a tacit appeal to Southern white voters and a continuation of Richard Nixon's Southern strategy, while others argued it merely reflected his libertarian economic beliefs.

Reception

Reagan's critics, interpreting the words "states' rights" as akin to a desire to return to pre-Civil Rights laws regarding segregation, felt that he was at least insensitive to the concerns of blacks, or that he even was using this location and these words as a cynical, coded appeal to the white racist vote. Columnist Bob Herbert of The New York Times wrote, "Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair," and that it "was understood that when politicians started chirping about 'states’ rights' to white people in places like Neshoba County they were saying that when it comes down to you and the blacks, we’re with you". Paul Krugman, also of the Times, noted that a Republican national committee member from Mississippi had urged Reagan to speak at the county fair, as it would help win over “George Wallace-inclined voters”, and wrote that this was just one of many examples of "Reagan’s tacit race-baiting in the historical record."

Eulogizing on Reagan's death, Washington Post columnist William Raspberry noted of the incident:

It was bitter symbolism for black Americans (though surely not just for black Americans). Countless observers have noted that Reagan took the Republican Party from virtual irrelevance to the ascendancy it now enjoys. The essence of that transformation, we shouldn't forget, is the party's successful wooing of the race-exploiting Southern Democrats formerly known as Dixiecrats. And Reagan's Philadelphia appearance was an important bouquet in that courtship.

Others, including the Washington Post editorial page, contended that there was nothing racist about Reagan's use of the phrase "states' rights" in the context of the speech; The National Review criticized Jimmy Carter's allegations of racism, calling them "frightful distortions, bordering on outright lies." David Brooks of The New York Times responded to the article by fellow Times columnist Krugman, and called the attention paid to the "states' rights" phrase a "slur" and a "distortion." He wrote that the campaign had been somewhat forced by the county fair organizers who had announced Reagan's appearance, and that the "states' rights" phrase was used in the part of his speech, but that the speech was mostly about inflation and the economy and how it related to schools. Brooks wrote that Reagan had been courting black voters at that time, and he flew to New York City after the speech to deliver an address to the Urban League. In the same article, Brooks does admit, however, that:

"You can look back on this history in many ways. It’s callous, at least, to use the phrase “states’ rights” in any context in Philadelphia. Reagan could have done something wonderful if he’d mentioned civil rights at the fair. He didn’t. And it’s obviously true that race played a role in the G.O.P.’s ascent."

This caused Bob Herbert to respond a few days later with an op-ed column titled "Righting Reagan’s Wrongs?", in which he wrote:

"Reagan was the first presidential candidate ever to appear at the fair, and he knew exactly what he was doing when he told that crowd, 'I believe in states’ rights.' Reagan apologists have every right to be ashamed of that appearance by their hero, but they have no right to change the meaning of it, which was unmistakable. Commentators have been trying of late to put this appearance by Reagan into a racially benign context.

See also

• Speeches and debates of Ronald Reagan

External links

• Recording of Reagan's speech.
• "Transcript of Ronald Reagan's 1980 Neshoba County Fair speech" from The Neshoba Democrat
• "Recording of Reagan's Fair speech found" from The Neshoba Democrat