Pro-Southerners
File:HWPile.jpg
Harry William Pyle (seated) hands a petition to Memphis Park Commission chairman John Vesey in support of continuing racial segregation at a local park. Members of Pyle’s organization Pro-Southerners look on.
The Pro-Southerners was a 1950s Memphis-based segregationist group led by Harry William Pyle. Pyle claimed in 1955 the group had 82 members in the Memphis area.[1] Pyle resigned as leader of the group in March 1956.[2] After naming James C. Piersol as his successor the group began to reform around M. B. Sherrill of Fort Pierce, Florida.
One reason for the declined of the organization was members moving to join the White Citizens' Council.
The Pro-Southerners distributed flyer on the communist training school know as the Highlander Folk School.[3]
Notes
- ↑ Harry Pyle FBI file
- ↑ Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis, by Sharon D. Wright, page 44
- ↑ Pro-Southerners flyer
