LESSON 3 The Solid South Shifts Shifting Sands
- Slides: 8
LESSON 3 The Solid South Shifts
Shifting Sands of Party Politics • The “solid south” were southern Democratic states who blamed the Republican party for the Civil War and Reconstruction. • After the New Deal, ideals changed and many Democrats begin supporting African Americans and equal civil rights. • Black voters began to shift their support from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. • The Democratic Party started supporting the civil rights movement.
Angry Democrats • Many Southerners felt like the Democratic Party no longer represented their interests. • The Democratic Party started to split. • In 1948, many South Carolinians walked out of the Democratic Party convention to form a third political party to protest party support for an anti-lynching law.
The Dixiecrats • New third party led by South Carolinian, Strom Thurmond. • Thurmond: • Ran for president as a Dixiecrat in 1948 • Wrote a Southern Manifesto, condemning the Brown decision and urging people to continue segregation • Filibustered the civil rights act of 1957 • After the Dixiecrat party died, switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
Shifting Sands of Party Politics The Election of 1948 Progressive (Liberal Democrats) - Didn’t think President Truman was doing enough to keep FDR’s New Deal programs going. Democrats - Supported reelection of President Truman. - Supported civil rights, including antilynching laws and fair employment practices. Dixiecrats (Southern conservatives) - Wanted to preserve the “Southern way of life. ” - Opposed antilynching laws. - Vowed to block creation of FEPC.
Why was it so surprising that Democratic candidate Harry Truman defeated Republican candidate Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential election?
The New Political Parties • After the short lived Dixiecrat party died out, many angry white southern Democrats switched to the Republican party • African American voters continued to switch over to the Democratic party, who now solidly supported civil rights legislation. • In the 1970 s, the new Democratic party would also support the Women’s Rights Movement that was reborn as a result of the Civil Rights Movement.
More Political Changes in SC • SC continued to show its commitment to improving education, even after the 1970 s, by passing several pieces of legislation • Education Improvement Act of the 1980 s • Education Accountability Act of the 1990 s • Adoption of the Common Core State Standards in the 2000 s • Sales tax was adopted to help fund education. • Even with all the commitment to improvement, an achievement gap still persists.
