southern democrats ran alben w. barkley for president under the newly formed dixiecrat party in 1948.
southern democrats ran alben w. barkley for president under the newly formed dixiecrat party in 1948.
who did southern democrats run for president under the newly formed dixiecrat party in 1948?
alben w. barkley
in the 1948 election, after president harry s. truman signed executive order 9981 to desegregate the military, a group of conservative southern democrats known as dixiecrats split from the democratic party in reaction to the inclusion of a civil rights plank in the party's platform. this followed a floor fight led by civil-rights activist, minneapolis mayor (and soon-to-be senator) hubert humphrey. the disaffected conservative democrats formed the states' rights democratic, or dixiecrat party and nominated governor strom thurmond of south carolina for president. thurmond carried four deep south states in the general election: south carolina, alabama, mississippi and louisiana. the main plank of the states' rights democratic party was maintaining segregation and jim crow in the south. the dixiecrats, failing to deny the democrats the presidency in 1948, soon dissolved, but the split lingered. in the fall of 1964, thurmond was one of the first conservative southern democrats to switch to the republican party just a couple months after democratic president lyndon b. johnson signed the civil rights act into law.
southern strategy
in 1947–48 rayburn as minority leader helped pass the marshall plan and the aid package that supported the truman doctrine that supported non-communist european countries and helped to stop the spread of communism. he also had to deal with the southern democrats' (dixiecrats') reaction to president truman's call for very swift civil rights legislation. the committees were dominated by very powerful southern democrats who were pro-segregation so these civil rights bills were dead on arrival. rayburn had to be the moderate between the conservatives and liberals as well as the northern and southern democrats so he rebuffed truman's extremely fast civil rights bills but also rejected the southern democrats' calls for a pro-segregation candidate to run in place of truman in the 1948 presidential election. rayburn was against a swift poll tax repeal and other fast-track civil rights legislation but also ordered the pro-segregation democrats to run as a third-party due to his fears that the northern democrats would boycott the election and help the republicans win the election. rayburn was a staunch supporter of truman and was for a gradual civil rights legislation rollout that wouldn't be too fast and immediate due to the fears of the backlash by southern democrats. in 1949 after his successful efforts to win back the house, senate, and truman's re-election he became speaker again and supported a repeal of the texas poll tax. he said that a repeal of the poll tax in texas would aid the united states in its battle with the soviet union for the world's hearts and minds.
sam rayburn