Outsider:  "benign neglect" is rather passe'.....but don't let that stop you.  Perhaps you need to read a bit about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and just what white poltical demographic supported it and just what political demographic opposed it.......You do remember LBJ commenting just after he sign the Civil Rights Act that "we've (meaning the Democratic Party) lost the South for a generation"  He was only partially right.......it's been longer than a generation.  Racist whites deserted the "Civil Rights friendly" Democratic Party by the hundreds of thousands and found a comfortable new home in the,  well,  let's all guess what Grand Old Party..........Gary Crum