New Politics in the Old South: Ernest F. Hollings in the Civil Rights Era by David T. Ballantyne

Author:David T. Ballantyne [Ballantyne, David T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: National, United States, Biography & Autobiography, Political Science, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), American Government, Political, History
ISBN: 9781611177046
Google: O_k6DQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 32665799
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

A “common-sense, realistic, South Carolina Democrat”

In his second Senate term, Fritz Hollings gained notoriety as a moderate southern politician: he was, according to historians Jack Bass and W. Scott Poole, “consistent as a progressive voice.”1 Given the antihunger and ocean preservation legislation he promoted, as well as his opposition to U.S. involvement in Cambodia and his support for withdrawal from Southeast Asia more generally, Hollings fits within the moderate group of New South Democratic governors and senators elected around 1970. This group of politicians won election with an overwhelming majority of black voters and a sizeable minority of the white vote and generally finessed issues of race, focusing instead on problems of health, education, and economic development.2 Yet maintaining such a coalition was challenging, owing to the diverse interests represented.3 In Georgia one disillusioned Republican dubbed it a “night and day” coalition, given the stark range of ideological viewpoints represented by these politicians.4 To maintain their biracial support base, southern moderates needed to master what political scientist Alexander Lamis has termed “the art of the political straddle.”5 In his second Senate term, Hollings had to balance competing interests to pursue several progressive policy goals while remaining electable in politically conservative South Carolina.

As with Hollings’s growing concern for the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition in the United States in 1968 and 1969, ocean preservation soon became another of his nationally oriented pet projects. His interest in environmental preservation measures was unusual for a politician from a southeastern state whose politicians’ voting records were notably unsympathetic to environmental concerns in the 1970s.6 The 1970s have become known as the “environmental decade” for the large volume of protective legislation authored and the growth of grassroots awareness of environmental issues.7 An example of such mindfulness was the designation of April 22, 1970, as the first Earth Day, a measure sponsored by Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson. As a junior member of the Commerce Committee and the chairman of the Oceans and Atmosphere Subcommittee, Hollings oversaw and pushed through a number of important legislative measures in the 1970s that formed a major part of his legislative legacy. Alongside maneuvering to persuade President Nixon to create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), he shepherded several other key pieces of environmental legislation through Congress, including the 1971 Ocean Dumping Act, the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act, passed in 1972.8 For his work in ocean preservation, Hollings was recognized by numerous environmental organizations. The National Oceanography Association named him as their oceanography man of the year in 1971 and the Environmental Law Society honored him in 1974, while he was the National Wildlife Federation’s legislator of the year in 1975.9 Upon his retirement from the Senate in 2005, an Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Program was established to fund undergraduates to undertake internships at NOAA facilities and pursue careers in oceanic and atmospheric science.10

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