"In the midcentury South, the organized political expression of white supremacist politics was the Democratic Party. Indeed, number of prominent Democratic politicians — including Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, Supreme Court justice and Senator Hugo Black, and Mississippi governor and Senator Theodore Bilbo — were members of the Klan. But in the course of the 1960s, the northern wing of the Democrats joined with Republican elected officials (almost all of them northern) to pass the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.
After that, southern presidential politics rapidly re-aligned with newly enfranchised black voters supporting Democrats and most whites voting for GOP candidates. If the Klan was successful in suppressing African-American turnout or in pulling white people into the electoral process, that would boost the fortunes of Republican candidates.
And at least in some cases, the Klan actively supported Republican candidates. "Certainly, generating support for specific Republican presidential candidates or the Republican Party in general was not a primary goal of the Klan," the authors write, but "while the Klan was perhaps best known for its violent tactics in the 1960s, the movement did invest significant energy in attempting to influence voting outcomes … Klan members advocated for Goldwater’s Republican candidacy in 1964 while incessantly criticizing Democratic incumbents’ intensifying support for civil rights."
After that, southern presidential politics rapidly re-aligned with newly enfranchised black voters supporting Democrats and most whites voting for GOP candidates. If the Klan was successful in suppressing African-American turnout or in pulling white people into the electoral process, that would boost the fortunes of Republican candidates.
And at least in some cases, the Klan actively supported Republican candidates. "Certainly, generating support for specific Republican presidential candidates or the Republican Party in general was not a primary goal of the Klan," the authors write, but "while the Klan was perhaps best known for its violent tactics in the 1960s, the movement did invest significant energy in attempting to influence voting outcomes … Klan members advocated for Goldwater’s Republican candidacy in 1964 while incessantly criticizing Democratic incumbents’ intensifying support for civil rights."
No comments:
Post a Comment