By Ms Jheri Worldwide
Staff Writer
With the confidence of the people and the strength of its members, Dr. Alexander McAllister Rivera, president of the Greensboro branch of the NAACP and father of Rivera Jr., began to raise efforts and attention for registering Black women to vote. He worked with Bennet College professor Charles H. Moore, Charlotte Hawkins Brown of Palmer Memorial Institute to craft a response to state Republican Party Leaders that, “deplored the republican treatment of black citizens (male or female) by the ‘lilywhite’ managers of the Republican organization in the state.”
His quest uncovered the perspectives of state leadership. The unfavorable response indicated that Frank A. Linney, statechairman of the white Republican State Executive Committee, pledged “to the states’ white women” that if the Republican party carried the state, they would “have a strictly white government and the Republican Party’s policy will be to let the negro stay out of politics.”
Charles H. Moore, was quoted in the Greensboro Daily News warning Linney, “rejection of black Republican voters would return to haunt him.”
During this time Judge John Johnston Parker was the Republican candidate for governor. A UNC graduate with a private law practice in Greensboro from 1908 - 1922, it is not far fetched to place Judge Parker and Dr. Rivera in some of the same Greensboro circles and certainly aware of their respective politics. Between 1910 and 1916 Judge Parker ran for NC House as well as for attorney general. These races empowered him to share his perspectives on the African American vote in North Carolina.
Judge Parker was quoted in local media, “The Negro as a class does not desire to enter politics … the Republican Party of North Carolina does not desire him to do so.” Judge Parker went on to assert that Black voters, “yet to reach that stage of development when [they] can share the burdens and responsibilities of government … The participation of the Negro in politics is a source of evil and danger to both races and is not desired by the wise men in either race or by the Republican Party of North Carolina.” Judge Parker failed to obtain the votes for governorship, however Dr. Rivera took careful note of his ideas and public statements. Judge Parker went on to become the special assistant to the attorney general of the United States by the Republican President Calvin Coolidge and was eventually confirmed by the Senate to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
It is said that Judge Parker’s career success was largely due to his stance on the negro vote. Dr. Rivera, Moore, and others from the North Carolina NAACP began to lobby against political appointments at the national level when candidates were against negro voting. Their presence in Washington, DC while not always successful proved to be continuously impactful. In March 1930, after the death of Supreme Court Justice Edward Terry Sanford, President Warren G. Harding nominated Judge John J. Parker to fill the seat. Walter White, NAACP executive secretary, “felt it was imperative to move with the utmost speed to ascertain Judge Parker’s positions.” White didn’t have to look far, his good friend and Greensboro branch president Dr. Rivera had held news clippings outlining Judge Parker’s positions from his racist speeches. It was clear to both NAACP leaders that Judge Parker represented “a grave threat to the future of Black Americans and to the progressive work of the NAACP.” White went on to express firmly, “This situation ought as nothing else could, convince the Negros of North Carolina not of the desirability but of the absolute necessity of having alert, strong and well-organized branches to be on guard, ready to handle a situation like this.”
Walter White safeguarded his source to the grave referring to Dr. Rivera in his autobiography as the “key negro” on this endeavor or in other texts as “an ally in North Carolina.” The communication between White and Dr Rivera launched a chain of events that ushered in the first open challenge of a Supreme Court candidate. White wrote to Judge Parker seeking clarity on the comments made ten years earlier. No response was the response White accepted as he began a “spirited opposition … sending telegrams to 35 US Senators and all one hundred seventy seven NAACP branches ‘requesting that the nomination’ of Judge Parker to the Supreme Court ‘be rejected.’” May 7, 1930, 39 days later, Oscar De Priest, a Republican from Illinois, and the only Black representative in Congress, “phoned Walter White to inform him that the Senate had just voted 41 - 39 against confirmation of Judge Parker.
The NAACP had done more than keep a racist judge off the highest bench, they demonstrated the power of organized state and local branches of like minded individuals to work together on a common goal.
For more details on the North Carolina political history, the roots and life of Alexander McAllister Rivera Jr., please read ‘Social Justice and Liberation Struggles’ by UNC Wilmington Professor of History Glen Anthony Harris.
