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CHAPTER ONE -- EARLY YEARS AND RACE AND IMMIGRATION – Ed Sebesta 10/10/2020 As the years passed by Hatton W. Sumners became more careful on how he discussed racial issues to be compatible with his projected image as a constitutional sage. The early years reveal more candidly Sumners’ views regarding race and immigration. In a 1906 speech delivered before the District and County Attorney’s Association of Texas titled, “The Protection of the State Against the Criminal,” Sumners’ states that it is the duty of the government to protect “against the vicious,” but complains that, “A great many good people are coming to the conclusion that the criminal is the only one whose rights the law is bound to regard.” Sumner asserts that this has led to a state of “quasi anarchy,” in Texas. Sumners refers to a “namby-pamby sort of sympathy” for criminals in the juries. He also complains of “defendants with money” to escape punishment for crimes. He states, “Upon the brutal negro rapist and the poor, friendless white man the keen sword of the law falls with quick vengeance, for which I make no complaint.”1 The stereotype of the African American being some type of beast as opposed to the supposedly unbrutal white rapist is present in Sumners’ thinking. In 1907 Sumners gave a speech on Tennessee Day at the Texas State Fair. In discussing Tennesseans settling Texas he states, “Here they built their homes and planted side by side the standards of Christianity and Anglo-Saxon civilization,” thus giving a very specific racial and ethnic identity to Texas. One of the hazards Tennessee settlers were supposed to have faced traveling to Texas were, “hostile savages,” presumably in reference to Native Americans. The ethnic cleansing of Texas of Native Americans is erased. The Confederacy is referenced as something Tennesseans supported heroically implying that the Confederacy was a great good worthy of heroic defense. White supremacist Confederate John H. Reagan is praised as a hero.2 The idea of the pioneer as bring Anglo-Saxon civilization seems to have been a recurring theme with Sumners. At the Veterans and Settlers Reunion at Hillsboro, Texas in 1915 he is the principal speaker and says, “It was a sturdy, virile folk who in the early days turned their faces westward," and when they arrived in Texas, “Here they established Anglo-Saxon civilization, and under the shadow of Mexican oppression laid the foundation of a great republic.”3 Sumners spoke at the McKinney, Texas ex-Confederate and old settler’s reunion in 1912.4 That Sumners would have a positive view of the Confederacy is not surprising in
1
No author, “Mr. Sumners’ Views,” DMN, Oct. 26, 1906, page 11. No author, “Meet at the Fair,” DMN, Nov. 3, 1907, page 6. 3 No author, “Veterans and Settlers Reunite at Hillsboro,” DMN, July 28, 1915, page 15. 4 No author, “100 In McKinney Baby Show,” DMN, Aug. 30, 1912, page 3. 2
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that his father and uncle had been a in the Confederate army, his father as a Captain.5 Sumners’ activities on behalf of honoring the Confederacy will be detailed in its own chapter. The earliest detailed expression of Sumners views in a 1913 DMN article about the Japanese in California. In a DMN, June 13, 1913, article Sumners explains that the Japanese living in California are a menace and why. The Japanese problem, with which Congress has been confronted through the California anti-alien land bill has been given considerable study by Mr. Sumners and he considers it one of the gravest situations with which the United States is confronted. “Members of Congress generally,” he said, “recognize the situation with reference to Japan as one of potential gravity. While not acute at this time it looms big on the horizon of the future. It is one of the big problems with which we must deal. I believe it is generally recognized in this country, and that Japan recognizes either that the white and yellow races must indulge in a warfare that will exterminate one or the other races, or they must adjust themselves to certain portions of the earth which each will occupy. Because of an inborn racial antipathy it seems necessary either that each race should take certain territory, or that there must be a struggle to determine for all time which shall be the master. Because of the general appreciation of this truly vital problem I believe it will be adjusted with the second deplorable alternative.”6 The California anti-alien land bill was a bill to prohibit immigrants who were no eligible for citizenship to own land or have long-term leases. It was primarily directed at Japanese immigrant farmers. Sumners’ views on the subject of race comes up with American troubles in Panama in 1915. American soldiers were getting drunk and rioting in Panama City and Colon in Panama in prostitution districts in altercations with Afro-Panamanian police. Sumners sees the problem of Panama having police with African ancestry. In an April 3, 1915 article, “Sumners on Panama Trouble: Predicts Frequent Clashes Will Result in United States Taking Police Control Under Terms of Treaty,” he states:
5
Monroe, Mary Catherine, “Sumner, Hatton William,” Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), downloaded 11/15/2018. See also, no author, “Captain William A. Sumners Dies at Age of Eighty-One,” DMN, Aug. 19, 1919, page 9. For his uncle, No author, “Dr. R.E. Sumners, Veteran, Is Dead,” DMN, June 28, 1929, page 10. 6 No author, “Hatton W. Sumners at Home,” DMN, June 13, 1913, page 6.
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“Our authority is limited to a strip ten miles wide,” said Mr. Sumners, discussing the clash between Panama police and United States soldiers at Colon yesterday, “the other territory being policed by negroes. Almost every nationality on the globe is there, and the racial differences often present serious situations, with the feeling between the Panamans and Americans daily growing more acute. I would regret to see it, but it is apparent that we will have to take control of Central Panama to insure peaceful occupancy of the zone, since Panama and Colon are the only places of recreation...” The problem isn’t seen as white American soldiers being white supremacists or not knowing how to behave. The U.S. military and the DMN reporting on one incident is particularly self-serving.7
7
No author, “Sumners on Panama Trouble,” DMN, April 4, 1915, page 10. For description of drunk American soldiers rioting in prostitution districts see, no author, “Soldiers and Civilians Fight,” DMN, April 3, 1915, page 1. Another article with the excuses given for the American soldiers is, no author, “Details of Panama Riot,” DMN, Feb. 16, 1915, page 13.