The South and the Presidency

Report Outline
Threatened Southern Bolt Over Civil Rights
Role of the South in Presidential Politics
The Solid South and the Electoral Process
Prospects of Change in Southern Alignment

Threatened Southern Bolt Over Civil Rights

The threat of a southern bolt from President Truman in November as a result of his stand on civil rights legislation is now being taken with grim seriousness by national leaders of the Democratic party. Similar threats have frequently been made in previous presidential years but have blown over by election time. The present revolt has been gathering momentum steadily since early February and many southern leaders now seem too firmly committed to back down. The loss of the conservative southern vote, together with the defection of left-wing northern and western votes to Wallace's third party, would present an almost insuperable obstacle to the President's reelection.

The revolt was touched off when the President sent a special message to Congress, Feb. 2, urging adoption of a 10-point “minimum” civil rights program, including anti-lynch, anti-poll tax, and fair employment practice legislation, all of which have been bitterly opposed by southern Democrats. Southern members of Congress denounced the message as “a political sell-out,” an attempt to “barter the South's social institutions for the political favors of Negroes in the North.” And throughout the South the President was attacked by party leaders for “stabbing the South in the back” and “kissing the feet of mongrel minorities.”

Rebellion of the Southern Governors

At a meeting of southern governors, Feb. 7, at Wakulla Springs, Fla., Gov. Wright of Mississippi formally proposed that the South wash its hands of Truman and convoke a conference of “true Democrats” to plan southern strategy. The governors voted instead for a “cooling-off period” during which a committee would seek a redressment of southern grievances. After an unsucessful appeal to Chairman McGrath of the Democratic National Committee, Feb. 23, the committee announced that the President had deserted the principles of the Democratic party and that the South could no longer be counted as “in the bag” if he should be re-nominated. Three weeks later the governors reconvened at Washington and recommended to the people of the southern states that they oppose Truman “to the last ditch” at the convention and lay plans for offering a separate southern ticket in November.