This series consists of bills, booklets, a calendar, certificates, clippings, correspondence, forms, lists, memoranda, notes, pamphlets, petitions, photographs, postcards, press releases, receipts, reports, resolutions, speeches/statements, and telegrams.

Materials in the series date from 1948-1955 and cover Byrnes’ campaign for, and single term as, governor of the state of South Carolina, with most of the items in the series dating from 1950-1954. While in office, Byrnes focused much of his attention on improving education in the state by consolidating many school districts and applying revenue from the state’s first sales tax toward education. Byrnes supported segregation, but it was during his term that the Supreme Court issued the Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring the doctrine of separate-but-equal unconstitutional.

Materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by folder title, and correspondence files are arranged alphabetically by surname or county. Photographs and oversize items have been removed to photograph and oversize storage. See the Photographs Series for photographs removed from this series.

This series consists mainly of campaign correspondence and materials, as well as personal files. Material relating to the 1950 gubernatorial campaign include both out-of-state and in-state correspondence (some of the latter arranged by county) and lists of supporters. The correspondence consists of letters encouraging Byrnes to run and offers of support; requests for help or positions; a few issue-related letters on such topics as cotton, drunk driving, education foreign policy, segregation, and socialism; items relating to campaign advertisements in both print and on radio, including a number of letters from Hank D. Hearn of Charlotte, NC on showings of the “Citizen Byrnes” short by 20th Century Fox in South Carolina; descriptions of the political conditions and level of support for Byrnes in their area; suggestions regarding who to contact for support; and letters from Byrnes requesting support, thanking individuals for their support and other assistance, and asking for reports on political conditions in their area. There are also congratulations on his election to the governorship and material on Byrnes’ inauguration, including arrangements and replies to invitations.

Of particular interest are the materials related to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1952 presidential campaign. This campaign marked Byrnes’ first official break from the Democratic Party by leading the “South Carolinians for Eisenhower” movement. As a reward for his support, Byrnes was selected as a delegate to the United Nations in 1953. These materials include those relating to the 1952 Democratic State and National Conventions; correspondence pro and con, in and out-of-state on Byrnes’ support of Eisenhower; correspondence regarding Eisenhower’s inauguration; lists of potential supporters; statements made by Byrnes in support of Eisenhower; and some material on Eisenhower’s visit to Columbia on September 30, 1952. Material relating to his term as U.N. delegate includes administrative correspondence, background information on the United Nations and the issues before the Eighth Session of the General Assembly, a calendar noting meetings, and statements by Byrnes and Henry Cabot Lodge.

The personal correspondence includes material relating to his business investments and stocks, including his involvement in the Newmont Mining Corporation; insurance; taxes; and the sale of Byrnes’ Spartanburg home by James C. Grier of Grier & Company. There are invitations; requests for appointments to positions, assistance and information; thank yous; congratulations; and condolences. Some of the correspondence includes comments on civil rights legislation and segregation; foreign policy; national politics; and the 1954 Senatorial campaign between Brown and Thurmond. There is also family correspondence with Fuller and Miner families, much of it having to do with settling the estate of Lieutenant Wallace W. Fuller.

In addition to the letters on civil rights legislation and segregation there is an analysis and other information regarding “bloc voting” by African-Americans in 1952 presidential and 1954 congressional elections, as well as Byrnes’ statements on segregation in South Carolina schools and on the Brown decision. There are also statements by Byrnes in reaction to former President Harry Truman’s criticism of Byrnes in his memoirs and other material relating to Truman, including the draft of first seven chapters of “Fair Deal Follies,” an anti-Truman book and “corrective” to his memoirs, by Burt Drummond. There are few items on Harry Dexter White as well, which supplement the material in the State Department series regarding accusations that the former International Monetary Fund director was a Soviet spy.

[Correspondents include businessmen Bernard Baruch, Walter J. Brown, Lucius D. Clay, Charles Daniel, B. M. Edwards, and Fred Searls; cartoonist Jim Berryman; former governor Strom Thurmond; journalist Porter McKeever; lawyers John W. Davis; and James H. Hammond; U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower; U.S. Senator Burnet Maybank; Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter; and University of South Carolina President Donald Russell. There are also some letters to and from Maude Byrnes and Cassie Connor.

Byrne’s official gubernatorial files can be found at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia, SC.

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