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Georgia Democrats, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Shaping of the New South

Online ISBN:
9780813042152
Print ISBN:
9780813037653
Publisher:
University Press of Florida
Book

Georgia Democrats, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Shaping of the New South

Published:
29 January 2012
Online ISBN:
9780813042152
Print ISBN:
9780813037653
Publisher:
University Press of Florida

Abstract

The prevailing narrative of post-1945 southern politics, both among scholars and in the media, is that the rise of the Republican Party in the South can be attributed to the national Democratic Party alienating white voters in the region by passing comprehensive federal civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965. This “white backlash” narrative has also become a popular means of explaining the national political strength of the GOP since the end of the 1960s. In this book, the narrative is challenged as an inadequate explanation of modern southern and American politics. The book argues that rather than support for civil rights having undermined the Democratic Party in the South, it was a necessary and effective strategy that slowed Republican growth at the regional level for a generation. Out of conflicting attitudes toward race and civil rights between the major factions within the Georgia Democratic Party emerged a political strategy that stressed the need to minimize overt racial divisions in the state and instead focus voters' attention on economic growth and education. This strategy, known as progressive colorblindness, ultimately became the major driving force behind the creation of the post-Jim Crow “New South” politics of the 1970s and beyond.

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