Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968

Traces how the Republican Party in the South after Reconstruction transformed from a biracial organization to a mostly all-white one.

Boris Heersink (Author), Jeffery A. Jenkins (Author)

9781107158436, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 March 2020

376 pages, 70 b/w illus. 38 tables
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.5 cm, 0.66 kg

'… Heersink and Jenkins's study is incredibly important. It will help those wishing to understand how and why the Party of Lincoln became the Party of Trump.' Edward O. Frantz, The Journal of Southern History

In Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968, Heersink and Jenkins examine how National Convention politics allowed the South to remain important to the Republican Party after Reconstruction, and trace how Republican organizations in the South changed from biracial coalitions to mostly all-white ones over time. Little research exists on the GOP in the South after Reconstruction and before the 1960s. Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968 helps fill this knowledge gap. Using data on the race of Republican convention delegates from 1868 to 1952, the authors explore how the 'whitening' of the Republican Party affected its vote totals in the South. Once states passed laws to disenfranchise blacks during the Jim Crow era, the Republican Party in the South performed better electorally the whiter it became. These results are important for understanding how the GOP emerged as a competitive, and ultimately dominant, electoral party in the late-twentieth century South.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. The Republican Party and the South: some preliminaries
Part I. The South and National Republican Party Politics, 1865–1968: 3. The rise and fall of a Republican South, 1865–1877
4. The attempt to rebuild the Republican Party in the South, 1877–1896
5. The system of 1896 and Republicanism in the South, 1897–1932
6. Towards a modern Southern strategy, 1933–1968
Photos
Part II. Southern Republican Party Politics at the State Level: 7. Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, and Alabama
8. Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and Tennessee
9. South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi
10. Conclusion. The relevance of the South in the Republican Party.

Subject Areas: Civil rights & citizenship [JPVH1], Political parties [JPL], Political science & theory [JPA], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]