Solid South Quotes
Prior to Johnson’s civil rights efforts, the South virtually always voted for Democrats in all elections. The only political competition was for the Democratic Party Primaries. The term “Solid South” meant that it was solid for the Democratic Party. But after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the racist whites who used to be Democrats switched and joined the genuine traditional conservative and created a Republican Southern majority that was as solid for the GOP as the Democrats had ever enjoyed.
He was right. Even the vaunted Southern Filibuster was broken by the strategy and tactics Johnson and Senator Humbert Humphry, the Floor Leader for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.
Roosevelt’s New Deal would have been impossible without the support of the Southern segregationists.
At that time, all the racist segregationists of the South were Democrats, unlike in the latter part of the 20th century where, after the Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, pushed through the Civil Rights Act, the segregationists accepted an invitation to switch to the Republican Party. In the 1930s, FDR’s Congressional majority depended on these segregationists. This is why, even though the New Deal liberalized most of American life, FDR did very little about racial equality and Civil Rights. In the 21st century, Republican Administrations could not do much about the remaining equality and civil rights issues. The racists of America, although far fewer in number, voted for the Republicans and were an important part of their base, just as they had been for FDR during the New Deal.
The event that triggered the call was President Lyndon Johnson introducing the Voting Right Act. Russell had been a mentor to the young Johnson, a fellow Southerner who had voted against and blocked all civil rights legislation when he was in the House and Senate. However when he became President, his representation changed and he reverted to his pre-political views. {637651}
At the time less than 10% of the Southern Blacks were allowed to vote. The result was that Southern segregationists were elected to Congress even in a state like Mississippi which had a majority Black population, The Southern segregationist bloc was large enough that with a few very conservative Republicans, they formed a coalition could block any civil rights legislation including voting rights reform,
No civil rights bill had been passed since Reconstruction and the Southern legislators were considered an insurmountable power bloc in Washington who could not be thwarted. Some had criticized the bill as being very weak and insignificant. LBJ disagreed.
His effort came to no avail. The South at that time was too much dominated by the issues of discrimination and race.
The press and the public quickly adopted the “Solid South” phrase as an appropriate description of the Southern monolithic approach to Presidential elections.
