The people that I talked to about this were hardly spineless.
Nor were they particularly afraid of a boycott from the NAACP - for the simple reason that they knew the boycott would fail.
As did Benjamin Disraeli when he passed the Reform Act of
1867, they wanted to control the compromise, to pass it on their terms - and they wanted to drive a wedge between the NAACP and members of the black community who supported the compromise.
The day before the vote, there might not have been votes to pass the compromise, but everyone around the State House knew that the compromise was going to pass, it was merely a question of the margin of victory.
my staff & i "polled" the members less than 24 hours before the vote & we "had the votes" to do NOTHING.
free dixie,sw