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" The political life of Stanley Fletcher Morse "
Jeremy Monroe Richards
M. G. Synnott
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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54111
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| Doc. No
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TL24065
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| Call number
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3201365
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| Main Entry
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Jeremy Monroe Richards
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| Title & Author
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The political life of Stanley Fletcher Morse\ Jeremy Monroe Richards
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| College
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University of South Carolina
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| Date
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2005
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2005
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| Page No
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380
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| Abstract
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This is a political biography of Stanley Fletcher Morse. Morse, an agricultural expert, became a political activist in the early 1930's and continued his activism for much of the next forty years. Studying his political activities shed light on conservative resistance to political, social, and economic changes in twentieth-century America. Born in 1884, Morse, a Massachusetts native, graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. Morse's agricultural consulting work took him to several foreign countries as well as different parts of the United States. He married Elizabeth Fenn Leonard and raised one son, Stanley Morse Jr. The couple moved to South Carolina in 1926, where Morse remained for most of the rest of his life. Morse, a conservative Republican, did not become consistently politically active until the Great Depression and the arrival of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program. Morse publicly opposed the New Deal, focusing much of his criticism upon its agricultural policies. He joined the American Liberty League in its opposition to the New Deal and in 1935 became the Executive Vice-President of an offshoot organization called the Farmers' Independence Council of America. Before U.S. entry into World War II Morse joined the America First Committee to oppose American involvement. During the war he worked for the Foreign Economic Administration in French North Africa. After World War II Morse opposed Harry Truman's Fair Deal program. In 1952 Morse became one of the key players in both the Citizens Grass Roots Crusade and the South Carolinians for Eisenhower organization. Both groups worked towards the election of Dwight Eisenhower as president. As a staunch segregationist Morse opposed the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. In September 1954 the Citizens Grass Roots Crusade became the Grass Roots League of South Carolina. Morse served as President of the new anti-Communist, pro-segregation organization. Though the League's membership apparently was never very large, it had considerable influence among segregationists through its literature. Elizabeth Morse passed away in 1962. Morse remarried in 1964 to Carolyn Erskine Gillespie Mellette. In the 1960's, to Morse's dismay, legal racial segregation collapsed. In the last decade of Morse's life he became less politically active. He died in 1975.
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| Subject
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Social sciences; Language, literature and linguistics; Civil rights; Morse, Stanley Fletcher; Political life; White resistance; American history; History; Biographies; 0582:History; 0304:Biographies; 0337:American history
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| Added Entry
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M. G. Synnott
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University of South Carolina
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