The Infamous Southern Strategy
Most avid political followers have heard of the Southern Strategy. The version that we have all been told is that Nixon used the racial fears of Southern Democrats to get them to vote for him. Those Democrats then became Republicans, and the parties switched positions on racial issues. The End. This is a really glossed over version of what happened. The real story includes many more details and goes back a lot farther than Nixon. While he may get credit for the Southern Strategy, the foundation for the plan was created long before he was in office. It was the culmination of 40+ years of work.
Let’s take a look at a timeline and the events leading up to Nixon’s implementation of this strategy. Many events made the conditions ripe for Nixon to pull off this switch in the parties.
Before 1960: The Unstable Democratic Party Coalition
Democrats had held sway in the South since Republicans were still viewed as the party that attacked them during the Civil War. These wounds continued to run deep long after the fighting ended. Because of that resentment, there was a loyalty to the Democratic Party, even if it wasn’t an ideological one. As long as topics of Civil Rights remained off the table, Democrats could count on the votes of white Southerners. This loyalty that began post-Reconstruction didn’t abate until the Civil Rights era.
During this time, Democratic state legislatures passed laws that made a multitude of things as difficult as possible for blacks and poor whites in the South, especially voting. Common tactics were poll taxes and literacy tests. These laws were called “Jim Crow laws." With these barriers in place, the share of poor white and African American voters dropped, making it impossible for the Republican Party to compete in elections. Other than small pockets in mostly rural mountain communities, Republicans had been shut out of all political offices in the vast majority of the former confederacy.
However, fractures became apparent in 1948 when the Democrats added a plank to their party platform in support of eradicating and eliminating all forms of racial, religious, and economic discrimination. This plank was the beginning of the collapse of Southern Democrats allegiance to the party.
That same year, South Carolina Democrat Strom Thurmond ran for president as a Dixiecrat. The Dixiecrats were an offshoot of the Democratic Party founded to oppose desegregation efforts in the South. While Thurmond did lose, he did carry several Southern states. The base of his support was white southerners who opposed civil rights for African Americans.
1960 to 1964: Racial Issues Reemerge and Republicans Move to The Right
Issues that rose to prominence in the 50s continued to play a role in the politics of the 60s. Court cases like Brown v Board of Education played a role in politics as Southern states actively fought against integrating their schools, even with a court order.
In 1964 President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregated public spaces and discrimination in employment based on race. The passage of this act was momentous since it was met with massive pushback by Democrats, specifically Southern Democrats.
However, the Republican Party took a sharp turn on civil rights and race relations with the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964. He was far more conservative on these issues than previous Republican nominees. He wanted to remove the federal government from decisions on desegregation and leave it up to the states to decide. While he did not win, he did carry five Southern states that had not voted for a Republican since before Reconstruction. It showed that this message resonated with white southerners and that the Democratic stronghold could be broken.
1965 to 1972: Years Of Turmoil And Nixon’s Southern Strategy
The gains made by Goldwater in the last election showed Republicans what messages they needed to fine tune so they could have a winning strategy in the South. While this was happening, President Johnson signed additional civil rights legislation by signing the Voting Rights Act into law. Even with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, the country remained in a tumultuous state. Many riots happened across the country, and both Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy were assassinated. There was also growing discontent and chaos over the Vietnam War. This unrest even played out at the Democratic Convention in Chicago with violence in the streets.
Republicans capitalized on this unrest by selling themselves as the party of “law and order." They sought to assure the nation that they could quiet the turmoil in the streets of the country. The message had a broad appeal to conservatives, especially white southerners. Republican nominee Richard Nixon made it a point to meet with Southern Democrats to assure them that he wouldn’t allow federal overreach into their state affairs. Even with an independent bid by Alabama Governor and segregationist George Wallace, Nixon secured the win. Nixon used coded language to reach Southern Democrats, while Wallace directly spoke about opposition to desegregation and civil rights for black citizens.
1969 And Later: The Southern Strategy Evolves, But Continues
Court cases that were decided during this time played a role in continued racial issues during the time. However, the issues that were being heard by the courts and discussed in the public square weren’t overtly racial any more, but the underlying meaning most certainly was. Over time, more and more Southern Democrats made the shift to the Republican Party. In 1972, Nixon won every state in the Union except Massachusetts. Some of those southern states have continued to vote Republican ever since.
Republicans have continued to execute this strategy successfully. Reagan used it to attack the so-called “welfare state." In 1988 this same underpinning led to the infamous Willie Horton ad campaign used against Democrat Michael Dukakis, which showed that these fears could also work outside of the South. It was also used by Republican Senate candidate Jesse Helms to attack racial quotas.
Churches also became a hotbed for helping push the Southern Strategy. By presenting the court cases revolving around race as a precursor to forcing churches to do things they didn’t believe in, churches locked in behind the Republican Party. This was nowhere more true than the evangelical wing of the Protestant denomination. On the flip side, African Methodist churches seemed drawn to Democrats.
The rallying cry for the Southern Strategy was the term “states rights." While the concept of states rights is extremely important, it became a dog-whistle for rolling back civil rights protects. The term still exists today in the same fashion and is now also applied towards issues such as gay marriage, LGBTQIA rights, and abortion. The original shift for Republicans was driven by racial conservatism and, in some cases, outright racism. It continues today as a way to be conservative on social issues and a desire to reduce social safety net programs and the number of immigrants entering the country.
Conclusion
The Republican Party is still very strong in the South in our modern times. It is especially strong in states that were once part of the confederacy. Although, changes in demographics have made its grasp on power dubious in states like Virginia and North Carolina. But the things that drove white Southern Democrats to be white Southern Republicans have not changed. Under the guise of states rights, these states still try to roll back protections that were part of the legislation signed by Johnson by implementing voter ID laws and other tactics to drive down turnout of poor and black voters. Those poor and black voters now vote for Democrats. The plan that was crafted by others and executed to perfection by Nixon still lives to this day.