In the 1960 election, Richard Nixon sought black support and hoped for an endorsement from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with whom he was on friendly terms. He frequently called attention to the fact that John F. Kennedy’s running mate, Senator Johnson, was from a state of the old Confederacy and had fought civil rights legislation in Congress.
As president, Kennedy dragged his feet on civil rights, which is what led to the March on Washington. To his credit, Johnson switched sides as president and used his considerable legislative skill to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Republican support was critical to passage of the Civil Rights Act. In the House of Representatives, it would have failed without the strong support of Republicans, who provided 138 of the 290 votes for passage. In the Senate as well, Republicans votes were necessary to enact the Civil Rights Act.
Senator Barry Goldwater, Republican of Arizona, however, was among the “no” votes.
Nevertheless, Goldwater’s vote had deep political consequences. The Republican share of the black vote fell from a third in 1960 to just 6 percent in 1964, from which it has never recovered. It also got him the votes of white Southerners who hadn’t voted Republican ever in their family history. As a consequence, Goldwater carried Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina—the only states he carried other than his home state.
This set in motion a political reversal in the South, which is now solidly Republican. Many liberals believe this is because Republicans pandered to southern racists. This is not correct. Republicans simply capitalized on the political opportunity that presented itself.
In the long run, the really profound development wasn’t that Republicans took over the South, but that the South took over the Republican Party. I will have more to say about this next week.
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