The Aftermath of the Dixiecrat’s Failed Campaign
Part Twelve: What would the Dixiecrats do next?
President Truman’s Democratic victory at the polls put a huge question mark on the political future of the Dixiecrats. Almost immediately following the election, America assumed Wallace’s third party would dissolve, but there was much more uncertainty surrounding the Southern Democrats.
Jack Kroll, CIO Political Action Committee director, said, “The Democratic Party has rid itself of the two lunatic fringes, the extreme right as represented by the Dixiecrats, and the extreme left as represented by those who voted for Henry Wallace.” It wasn’t exactly a ‘welcome back’ sign[1].
Governor Thurmond issued a post-election statement where he said he still considered himself a member of the Democratic party. Still, he would not be dictated to by the Democratic National Party or Chairman McGrath. Thurmond said that the members of the Democratic Party of South Carolina operated their party separate from the National Party. Although Senator McGrath had already recognized a different and pro-Truman group, the official Democratic Party of South Carolina[2].
The South Carolina Dixiecrats got caught in a trap of their own making. John McCray, the state chairman of the Progressive Democrats, was credited with having influenced and rallied Black Southerners to get out and vote. The Progressive Democrats were the pro-Truman group that McGrath made the official state party. After the election was over, the South Carolina Dixiecrats contended that they were the real Democrats and entitled to be recognized[3].
Chairman McCray put out a statement in the Charleston News and Courier, which said, “For the first time in history, we have been able to trap the South’s worst element in one bag. We’ve tied the top and don’t intend to let in one breath of air until and unless we are assured white supremacy has been suffocated.”
Despite the bitter words, many in the Democratic National Party were hoping to make amends with the Southern Democrats and bring the party back together[4]. Therefore, Democrats brushed off former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s proposal to purge the Dixiecrats from the Democratic Party[5].
There was early talk of banning the Dixiecrats from committee assignments in the 81st Congress[6]. One petition got 100,000 signatures to bar four Dixiecrats from even taking office[7]. But ultimately, all the elected Dixiecrats went to Congress and sat on committees[8].
Southern Democrats and the GOP had often teamed up on economic issues in the previous Congressional sessions[9]. So, Truman and his aides right away began devising a plan to prevent a Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition by calculating the support that they would have in the Senate to base their legislative program[10].
President Truman was going to push through as many civil rights bills as he could. The concern was whether the Dixiecrats would resort to a filibuster in the Senate. Two months before the 81st Congress was to begin, there was already a discussion on cloture rules. The Truman administration bet that Dixiecrats would be unable to block a rule change that would make cloture applicable to a motion to take up a bill or any other pending business or pending measure[11].
Cloture is a motion to bring a quick end to a debate and requires two-thirds of Senators to vote. During the 80th Congress, five Southern Senators filibustered a bill that would have made the Fair Employment Practice Committee a permanent committee. As a result, the cloture vote failed, forcing the bill’s removal.
Many DC insiders saw the Dixiecrat-Republican Coalition coming[12]. Southern Democrats were more likely to vote with Republicans on things like rent control and public housing. It wasn’t a matter of Democrat versus Republican; it was a shared belief of doing things a certain way[13].
The 1948 presidential election was like a national poll conducted on race, and it was clear where the majority of America stood with Harry Truman and his civil rights program. While the Dixiecrats counted on a stampede of white Southerners, they still lost nine Southern states. The 1948 election put American politics on a path that would forever change both the Democratic and Republican Parties. Liberal thought was growing in the US[14].
The Dixiecrats lost the presidency, but they weren’t ready to let go of white supremacy or Jim Crow.
The Black vote started to shift and become unreliable for Republicans during the 1928 Herbert Hoover Presidential Campaign. President Hoover was a Lily-White Republican and campaigned as one.
The Lily-White Movement started in Texas back in the 1880s and was an anti-Black political movement within the Republican Party[15]. It was in direct response to the political and socioeconomic gains made by Black people following the end of the Civil War. White Southern Republicans wanted to purge the Republican Party of Black people. The Lily-White Republican Organization lasted until the early 1960s in splintered factions all around the South.
By 1948, the Republican Party didn’t resemble the Party of Lincoln, and Black Southerners no longer felt obligated to the GOP, despite their historical role in emancipation. By that time, the NAACP had spent several decades fighting white primaries in the South. Along with that, the National Democratic Party was transforming to the party of progress and liberal legislation.
President Roosevelt and then President Truman accelerated the move of the Black vote with the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and civil rights. Meanwhile, the Conservative Southern White Democrats were disappointed over the Dixiecrat loss and remained angry at Truman’s Civil Rights Program[16].
The stars were aligned just right for Republicans to team up with Southern Democrats against a common enemy. President Harry S. Truman.
[1] Evening Star, “What Next in Dixie,” (November 7, 1948)
[2] Associated Press, “Thurmond Still Considers Himself as Democrat,” Evening Star, (November 4, 1948)
[3] The Northwest Enterprise, “SC Dixiecrats Caught in Trap,” (November 24, 1948)
[4] Evening Star, “What Next in Dixie,” (November 7, 1948)
[5] Jack Bell, “Demos Snub Mrs. Roosevelt’s Plan for Party Purge,” The Nome Nugget, (November 10, 1948)
[6] The Northwest Enterprise, “Truman Forgives But not Friendly to Dixiecrats,” (December 8, 1948)
[7] The Detroit Tribune, “Let’s Keep Them Out, If Petitions Will Do the Job,” (December 25, 1948)
[8] J. A. O’Leary, “Committee Skirmishing Awaits New Legislation,” Evening Star, (December 26, 1948)
[9] Chalmers M. Roberts, “Both Parties, Eyeing Polls, Fear to Burst Inflation Bubble,” Evening Star, (August 1, 1948)
[10] J. A. O’Leary, “Senators Line Up Behind Truman New Deal Bills,” Evening Star, (November 17, 1948)
[11] Gould Lincoln, “Barriers to Hasty Action on Bills Again Under Fire,” Evening Star, (December 18, 1948)
[12] Joseph A. Fox, “Truman Will Return Tomorrow for Heavy Conference Schedule,” Evening Star, (November 20, 1948)
[13] Tom O’Connor, “Realtors See Hope in Tory Bloc in Congress,” The People’s Voice, (November 26, 1948)
[14] Arizona Sun, “Liberal Thought Growing in the US,” (December 3, 1948)
[15] The New York Times, “Negroes Lose Fight in North Carolina,” (February 17, 1903)
[16] The Ohio Daily Express, “Dixie Whites Turn to GOP, Negroes to Dems,” (December 8, 1948)