The KKK assassinates Eleanor Roosevelt

Inspired by a reddit thread. The KKK put a bounty of 25000 dollars on Eleanor Roosevelts head, because of her anti-lynching campaign. What if someone had taken up the offer and succesfully killed her? At the time she was no longer first lady, but she was a UN representative and from what I gather, a pretty popular public figure.

Would it lead to harsher government crackdowns of the KKK?
 
A now undeniable terrorist group putting out a hit on a goddamn former First Lady? You better fucking believe there would be a crackdown. Also probably reforms for the Secret Service to ensure that former First Ladies receive protection too, if that wasn't already a thing.
 
Would it lead to harsher government crackdowns of the KKK?
Why wouldn't it? She's not just a former First Lady, she was a Wartime First Lady. That matters for perception. It's the KKK implicitly siding with foreign enemies. There'll be investigations about possible KKK links to ODESSA. Mayhaps not quite "The Footprint of Mussolini" level crackdown, but close.
 
When was this?

The supposed incident took place in 1958. https://books.google.com/books?id=XfJRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA21 I say "supposed" because the only real evidence is that an informant told the FBI about the alleged bounty. A lot of FBI informants say a lot of wild things, and who knows--maybe this informant was actually made up by the FBI to scare Mrs. Roosevelt out of speaking at the Highlander Folk School (whose politics the FBI very much disliked)? If that was the purpose, they failed...
 
Welp, 1958's an election year. IOTL the conservative coalition lost their hold on the House anyway, but ITTL every single member of Congress will be raked over the coals for their ties to the KKK. You thought the 1960s were liberal? You ain't seen nothing yet.
 
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Welp, 1958's an election year. IOTL the conservative coalition lost their hold on the House anyway, but ITTL they're every single member of Congress will be raked over the coals for their ties to the KKK. You thought the 1960s were liberal? You ain't seen nothing yet.
Which either means a stronger conservative backlash in a few decades, or American Conservatism is just shattered and doesn't recover until it moderates its social reforms
 
Which either means a stronger conservative backlash in a few decades, or American Conservatism is just shattered and doesn't recover until it moderates its social reforms

I mean, it depends really. 1960 will probably still be Kennedy/Nixon, and yeah, Nixon's running as a moderate so that might be to his disadvantage, but Kennedy is inexorably associated with the Democrats. Now obviously Johnson isn't going to be on the ticket (most likely he'll choose a Northern senator like Scoop Jackson ITTL), but seeing as a load of Southern Democrats (and quite possibly some Northern Democrats) are bound to go down in the KKK purge, the Northern electorate might be dissuaded for voting for a Democrat because they're afraid Kennedy'll be a Klansman in disguise.

Additionally, the downfall of the KKK wouldn't eliminate institutional racism entirely. The Southern electorate might be temporarily embarrassed and vilified by the North, but they'd still be racist as fuck - they just can't win on explicit racism. That whole Lee Atwater quote comes to mind:

Lee Atwater said:
You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger". By 1968 you can't say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger".

So there are two options. The first is that Kennedy wins as IOTL, and in 1964 Goldwater downplays the opposition to civil rights and massively plays up the neoliberalism. Efficiency in the private sector, aspirational politics, Hayek and Mises and Friedman, basically the tax cut bit onwards but sixteen years earlier. There's a very good chance that Goldwater defeats Jackson or whoever ITTL, and oh Lord 1968 would be something then.

If Nixon wins, the Democrats might try and reorganise as more of a Christian democratic party after the German CDU. This way they'd (a) rid themselves of any racist associations, keeping Northern conservatives on their side (b) keep the evangelicals aligned to the Democrats, thus keeping Southern conservatives on their side (c) probably not turn neoliberal after 1980, assuming they adopted the CDU's ordoliberal social-market economic policies. This way, Reagan stays a Democrat, so you might see something like a Reagan/Connally ticket in 1968 or 1972.
 
I'd say that the anti converstive backlash would republican would resut not eclting anyone more consetive then nelson rockafellor untill 2012 at the earlierst. There would probbly huge crack down on cofederate monuments..Serveral r .The democart party may want ot rename then the liberal demcotics soical democart liberal social demcorats or progresive democartic self because of the names assotion with the kkk
 

Thomas1195

Banned
If Nixon wins, the Democrats might try and reorganise as more of a Christian democratic party after the German CDU. This way they'd (a) rid themselves of any racist associations, keeping Northern conservatives on their side (b) keep the evangelicals aligned to the Democrats, thus keeping Southern conservatives on their side (c) probably not turn neoliberal after 1980, assuming they adopted the CDU's ordoliberal social-market economic policies. This way, Reagan stays a Democrat, so you might see something like a Reagan/Connally ticket in 1968 or 1972.
This TL could look like a FDP vs CDU but in America. And I think Nixon's successors would be in Rockefeller wing and this could also return the GOP to their former "civil right party" status.
 
Well the Golden Circle Boys just signed their own death warrants. If nothing else once the dust settles the South and parts of the Midwest are likely less volatile in the late 50s/60s.
 
J. Edgar Hoover goes full Godfather Baptism Scene on the Klan. Sadism, rape and murder destroyed the 1920s Klan*. An assassination of a First Lady is even worse than that.
 
I mean, it depends really. 1960 will probably still be Kennedy/Nixon, and yeah, Nixon's running as a moderate so that might be to his disadvantage, but Kennedy is inexorably associated with the Democrats. Now obviously Johnson isn't going to be on the ticket (most likely he'll choose a Northern senator like Scoop Jackson ITTL), but seeing as a load of Southern Democrats (and quite possibly some Northern Democrats) are bound to go down in the KKK purge, the Northern electorate might be dissuaded for voting for a Democrat because they're afraid Kennedy'll be a Klansman in disguise.

Additionally, the downfall of the KKK wouldn't eliminate institutional racism entirely. The Southern electorate might be temporarily embarrassed and vilified by the North, but they'd still be racist as fuck - they just can't win on explicit racism. That whole Lee Atwater quote comes to mind:

So there are two options. The first is that Kennedy wins as IOTL, and in 1964 Goldwater downplays the opposition to civil rights and massively plays up the neoliberalism. Efficiency in the private sector, aspirational politics, Hayek and Mises and Friedman, basically the tax cut bit onwards but sixteen years earlier. There's a very good chance that Goldwater defeats Jackson or whoever ITTL, and oh Lord 1968 would be something then.

If Nixon wins, the Democrats might try and reorganise as more of a Christian democratic party after the German CDU. This way they'd (a) rid themselves of any racist associations, keeping Northern conservatives on their side (b) keep the evangelicals aligned to the Democrats, thus keeping Southern conservatives on their side (c) probably not turn neoliberal after 1980, assuming they adopted the CDU's ordoliberal social-market economic policies. This way, Reagan stays a Democrat, so you might see something like a Reagan/Connally ticket in 1968 or 1972.

Kennedy was a freakin Catholic. The KKK hated them as well at the time. The large scale KKK purge would be the first sign and any groups associated with or with similar connotations would be targeted, not just the KKK. I reckon several Afro-American prominent figures will speak up and use Eleanor as a form of martyr. Meanwhile, I reckon it will be difficult for Goldwater to try and promtoe neoliberalism too much as some may still remember the Great Depression while others may seem him as a threat to what they won in the New Deal with FDR.
 
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