The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-22
SENATOR BILB0
Continued From Page One)

ton to the United States Senate,
equivalent to election in Mississippi
ppi, despite the opposition of the
late Pat Harrison, then senior
senator of his state. From then
on, it was clear sailing FOR the
man from Poplarville until Jan.
3, 1947, when his past and the
Republican majority in the Sen
ate rose up to haunt him.
Bilbo never appeared to be con-
cerned over what his Senate col
leagues Or newspapers outside Of
Mississippi thought of him and his
doctrine Of white. supremacy and
states rights. Washington CORE
spondents once voted him the
title of worst man in the Sem
age"
Bilbo was one of eight children,
born in a little farmhouse in Pearl
River county Oct. 10, 1877, near
the site of the imposing three
story mansion, "the dream
house." which he later built. Odd
~ enough, he once held the digni-
fled post of a Latin and mathema-
tics teacher. But it was not long
before he got the urge to enter
politics.
Bilbo loved public life and was
never happier than when embroil-
ed in a Eight or a filibuster. He
was good at both.
During the 1916 session of Con-
gress he filibuetered against the
Fair Employment Practices Con-
troll bill and then rushed home
to tell Mississippi voters he had
saved them from being forced to
give Negroes equal privileges with
whites.
Ironically, Bilbo, whose TRADES
against Negroes probably won
him more enemies than any OF
his other outspoken views, died
with a gesture toward reconcilia.
ton with the race he had so often
denounced.
In his last published interview,
he defended his anti-Negro voting
policies as political self-preserva.
ton. He gave the interview to a
Negro editor, Leon L. Lewis o.
the NEGRO South.
Il am honestly against the so
cial intermingling of Negroes and
whites" were Bilbo's last words
for publication-uttered last Sat.
urday. "But I hold nothing. per.
sonal against Negroes as a race.
God made them as they are and
they should be proud of that God
given heritage as I am proud Of
mine"
Within hours after he made thai
softening statement Bilbo was
stricken with his mortal attack.
He had virtually dropped from
public life after he left Washing.
ton last January in the midst Of
the stormy debate over whether
he should be seated in the new
Congress. The Republican MAORI
ty had lined up almost solidly
against him because of his white
supremacy views and his dealings
with war contractors.
The nature of his illness-can'
Ger of the mouth and lower jaw
silenced to a whisper the leather.
Hinged voice that had carried con
v%iction from the stump in almost
every Mississippi election since
1927.
From Washington, Bilbo wen
straight to New Orleans where
DR.. Alton Ochsner, world-know1
cancer specialist, cut away thu
diseased tissue and bone. Ochsnel
planned to restore Bilbo's lowel
face by plastic surgery but Bilbt
never again came out from under
the bandages.
His last public apprenticeship
the only one since his departure
from Washington-was last spring
at P%oplarville when he dedicated
the Juniper Grove Baptist church
hard by his palatial "drean
house" on the Pearl river.
Since that appearance his exac
whereabouts had been a myster.
until he showed up at Foundation
hospital, now operated by Ochs
ner, about two weeks ago. He wa
feverish and in pain from neuriti
when he arrived and his condi'
ton had grown progressivel.
worse.
After the embolism set in Sun
day, a minor operation was per