Amber Sherman
Dr.Baxter
POSC 312
29 November 2014
The Impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 on Democratic Representation in Tennessee
After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968, President Lynden Johnson told his aide "We just gave the south to the republicans for the next forty years" This statement is at the root of a major argument that begs the question, Did the Civil Rights Act of 1968 effect the Democratic representation in Tennessee. The Civil Rights Act was arguably the most important of the many civil rights bills passed in the middle of the 20th century. The act itself outlawed many types of racial and sexual discrimination, including access to hotels, restaurants, and theaters. In the words of Vice President Biden, it was
…show more content…
This is mostly attributed to the "Southern Strategy" or "The Solid South" and the New Deal Coalition. In the aftermath of the American Civil War the former Confederate states maintained a cohesive voting pattern for nearly a century. It became known as "The Solid South" and voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates for years. But as times, and party platforms, changed southern politics did too (PBS "Solid South"). One must realize that the Democratic views held in the 1950s until 1968 became the republican views there soon after. The southerners voting democrat at that time all had the same views, assuring black voters could not have a voice and continuing to oppress them. Another form of oppression used by white democrats at that time to suppress voter turnout were poll taxes, enforcing the grandfather clauses and simple …show more content…
The 1930s New Deal realignment reshaped the party system in many ways because it's known as the longest lasting coalition, aligning with multiple interest groups, races, political parties, and the south itself. The New Deal coalition put Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House and the Democratic Party in control of Congress by combining support from the working class, various ethnic, and minority groups with already existing strength in the South. The ground for Democratic plea to blue-collar workers, low-income individuals, and recent immigrant groups, such as Catholics and Jews, was the party's liberalism in economic matters. President Roosevelt and the Democratic party heavily favored federal government activity to contest the Depression and proposed programs to benefit disadvantaged
Dan T. Carter’s book The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics chronicles the rise and fall of George Wallace, a populist who abandoned his ideals to become a national symbol of racism. In chapter eleven, the book takes a look at the “southernization” of American politics, with a special focus on the 1968 presidential election. This chapter discusses how Richard Nixon used his “Southern Strategy”, George Wallace’s “Wallace Factor”, and how Wallace’s political style helped the Republican Party rise in the South. Richard Nixon saw the fractures in the Solid South that were caused by Civil Rights legislation as a way to draw in Democrats living in southern states that
The Southern Strategy impacted American politics during the 1970’s because Nixon tried to win over the South. In the election, Nixon only got 43% of the popular vote because he only appealed to Republicans. He tried to win over conservative Americans, or he called them the “silent majority”, by asking federal courts in the south to delay
Many conservative southern states and people from the Republican Party were not happy with the Voting Rights Act and called it and believed it was “unconstitutional”. This brought then to the point where they wanted to make it more difficult for blacks and Mexican-Americans to vote. They even challenged the unconstitutionality of the Voting Rights Act in front of the Supreme Court in 1996 but they were not successful. After this president Regan
The Civil Rights Act passed the House on Feb. 10, 1964 by a margin of 289-16. Further break down of the voting saw (152 Democrats say yes, 91 said no 136 Republicans said yes while 35 said no.) This meant that there was less opposition on the Republican side than there was on the Democratic side. That leads to the natural question of why did the Bill that was introduced by a Democratic president, face such resistance by his own party. The primary reason that Republican support was higher than Democratic support even though the legislation was pushed hard by a Democratic president; Lyndon B. Johnson is that the opposition to the bill primarily came from Southern lawmakers.
In Days of Hope, Patricia Sullivan discusses the rise and fall of the New Deal movement. She uses oral interviews and documented sources to show how the New Deal era motivated liberals, African American activists, labor organizers, and members of the Communist Party who set out to take advantage of the New Deal's social and economic promises. The reformers increased political participation in the South by initially setting out to abolish the poll tax. They soon noticed, however, that in order to be successful in abolishing the tax, they must first fight for democracy in the South. During this fight, they were able to lobby Congress to elect more liberals and expand the right to vote to not just one city, but to the whole southern region with
Once in office, Roosevelt maintained his pace of reform with his New Deal program while congressional Democrats continued to create solutions to problems plaguing the country in order to keep the voters from returning to the opposing party. The collection of election and voting behavior data, and party registration and preference polls referenced by Sundquist indicates that the millions of voters who shifted partisan support, as well as newly mobilized voters, were concentrated in the industrial cities of the North, primarily from the working class – Republican and Democrat (215-217). It was nearly a one-way movement in the cities. Sundquist argues, “The key variable in the 1930s was not leadership but the overwhelming intrinsic power of the Great Depression as a realigning issue” (210). The Democratic strength had stabilized as the New Deal Democratic party became even more issue-oriented, liberal, working-class-based, and inclusive of new ethnic
The New Deal that President Franklin D. Roosevelt developed promoted social justice and social reform, as well as provided many opportunities for those at the bottom of American society. The race of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Presidency in 1932 drifted the nation's trusts. Years of financial hardships mounting had discouraged the American people. Roosevelt's staggering triumph over Herbert Hoover flagged an exhaustive dismissal of business as usual and a longing for novel methodologies. The new president would go ahead to demonstrate to the American group that they had settled on the right choice.
“When The Democratic Party split into three groups along regional lines, each vying for control of the party and each holding different ideas about how to deal with slavery”
Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era Franklin Roosevelt's subsequent New Deal programs were meant to address economic conditions faced after the Depression and the Second World War conditions. Southern United States was linked with race and poverty inextricably, the politics designed to remedy these economic problems created a unique period of opportunity for those involved in reversing the second class status of southern African Americans. The national crisis of southern poverty created opportunities for southern liberals to attempt to change the deep-rooted economic, political, and racial traditions of the South. According to Sullivan, “the development of mostly-young southern liberals and the
But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.
Civil rights was the most important reform during 1945 and 1980. The civil rights movement was a movement fighting for African-Americans equality, privileges, and rights. The Movement was centered around the injustice of African -Americans in the South. African American faced racial inequality, lack of economic opportunity, and unfairness in the political and legal processes. In the late 19th century, state and local governments imposed restrictions on voting qualifications which left the African community economically and politically powerless and passed segregation laws, known as Jim Crow laws.
Chapters four, five, and six, pertain to the rights of the American People and how the government goes about these rights. The chapters also go in depth of how the laws have been put into place. The Civil Rights Act of 1865 to 1875 provided much needed rights for everyone, not only African Americans. Rights were in place to the equality that all Americans were created equal.
Beginning with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1933, the New Deal was passed in the context of reformism and rationalism as the United States proceeded through the Great Depression. The American people looked to the President to instill reform policies to help direct the country out of an economic depression, and thus often sought to abandon the society that existed before the Great Depression. Roosevelt instituted New Deal policies to attempt to combat this period of economic decline, many of which were successful and appealed to the American people’s desires. President Roosevelt’s New Deal is often criticized for being excessively socialistic in nature, thus causing dramatic changes in the fundamental structure of the United
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is hailed by many as one of the most important legislations in the American history. The act was passed into law 52 years ago under a lot of pressure and resistance from white senators and African American activists. The act, which was largely known as the “Bill of the century” was aimed at bringing equality for blacks and whites and end racial prejudice. The act was targeted to revolutionize America where blacks and whites would eat together in the same hotels and enjoy similar rights in public places without any discrimination.
However, until today, African Americans still couldn’t get their real voting rights. This act doesn’t totally infer this situation, no matter how industrious blacks demand their completed fundamental rights. Except African American, within the United States, many minorities have struggled for their rights for many years. It is necessary for a government to protect all citizens’ rights, including the minorities. If the government couldn’t do that, as a citizen, we should speak out our perspectives by participating in the voting