Cracking the White �Solid South� with the Nexus of Race and Religion: The 1960�s as Transition?

Abstract

We have proposed a view of the partisan realignment of Southern whites toward the Republican

party over the past four decades that emphasizes continuity with the particular historic racial animosities
of whites living in that section of the United States, and their close association with evangelical
Protestantism. We review previously presented data in support of four hypotheses: (1) Geographic
divisions in the presidential vote since 1980 have been highly correlated with those in the only two eras of
American history in which the major political parties were sharply opposed on racial issues (the
antebellum period of 1848 to 1860 and the civil rights era of 1964 to 1972), but not with those in other,
less racialized political eras. (2) Whites living in the old Confederacy continue to show more negative
racial attitudes than whites living elsewhere in the country, by any of the usual indicators, and net of other
variables that might contribute to it. (3) Conservatism on racial issues has a stronger effect on
Republican party identification and presidential voting among Southern whites than among whites living
elsewhere in the country. Sectional differences in the impact of non-racial conservatism are minimal. (4)
Southern white Protestant evangelicals express higher levels of racism than they do outside the South, or
than do whites of other faiths in either section of the country. However they are generally not more
conservative than white evangelicals elsewhere in the country on non-racial issues. The special affinity
that Southern white evangelicals have for the Republican party seems to be best explained by their racial,
not their non-racial, conservatism. We interpret the data as indicating the persisting political effects of
traditional white Southern culture.

We then turn our attention to the period from just before the major activities of the civil rights

movement to the period just after them (1956-1972) to examine the early beginnings of the nexus between
racial conservatism and religious fundamentalism in the white South. We report several findings: (1) the
sharp racial polarization in Southern politics reached an early peak in 1964, followed by a higher peak in
1968, a seemingly stable level of polarization; (2) the greater support for segregation in the white South
than in the North remained surprisingly stable through the 1960’s; (3) Southern whites, like Northern
whites, quickly perceived the growing polarization of the parties over racial issues, but Southern whites
also saw the Democratic party as moving away from then; (4) religious fundamentalism became more
widespread as the 1960’s wore on, but did not do so in the North; (5) Southern white evangelicals stand
out as the religious group displaying most racial animosity as early as the mid-1960’s; and (6) both racial
conservatism and religiosity begin showing closer associations with Southern white support for the
Republicans by the mid-to-late 1960’s, depending on the indicator.

We conclude that these data emphasize both the swiftness with which the political winds changed

in the South in the 1960’s, and the pivotal nature of the presidential election campaigns of 1964 and 1968.
That is a story that has become conventional in the political behavior literature. But they also emphasize
the impressive continuity between the dynamics of whites’ partisanship in the South from that era to the
present. In particular they emphasize the unique nexus of racism and religious fundamentalism as
political forces in the white South.