Southern Democrats are members of the Democratic Party who live in the American South. They were initially strong advocates of slavery and opposed civil rights movements. Some became more liberal, while others formed ultraconservative factions. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 led many to switch to the Republican Party. Southern Democrats still exist today, advocating for traditional values, tough foreign policies, and fiscal responsibility.
Southern Democrats is the term commonly applied to members and supporters of the Democratic Party of the United States (USA) who live in states typically called the American South. This geographic region includes up to 16 states. The states included vary based on a number of historical and political references.
The term Southern Democrats was first used in the early 1800s when many regions of the United States were divided in their views on the morality and legality of slavery. They were often perceived as the strongest advocates of slavery, putting them in direct opposition to their northern Democratic counterparts. Their views on slavery and other social issues were also thought to conflict with the relatively new political party calling itself the Republican.
As the country’s politics continued to evolve in the mid to late 1800s, some Southern Democrats became more liberal and embraced more in-between political views. A significant number of other Southern Democrats, however, were tied more closely by opposition to the civil rights movement. These people formed ultraconservative factions like the Dixiecrats and right-wing vigilante groups like the White League and the Ku Klux Klan.
Support for civil rights and changes to laws that prohibited institutionalized racism led to some sweeping changes in the Democratic Party overall. General party policy drifted slowly to the left towards the end of the century. Some Southern Democrats reacted by joining forces with the Republican Party, which was starting to turn conservative and welcomed Democratic support.
Despite the many changes the two major political parties underwent in the early 1900s, most voters remained loyal to their original parties. But when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 took effect, many Southern Democrats chose to oust their Democratic representatives in favor of Republicans. Southern states have not elected so many Republicans to major political office since the Great Depression.
Over the next two turbulent decades, many voters switched political parties more than once. Southern Democrats began to lose control of some political strongholds in the South, which many attributed to the influence of Liberal Democrats. Republicans took advantage of this perceived weakness and gained control of both houses of Congress in 1994, a position they held for the rest of the decade.
Southern Democrats still exist today, but the moniker isn’t as prevalent as it was when the country was much younger. An attempt at unification in both name and platform is the claimed goal of many current Democratic Party members. Current Southern Democrats are generally identified as advocates of traditional values government legislation, tough foreign policies, and fiscal responsibility in the management of public funds.
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