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In reply to the discussion: Where did the idea come from that support for a second New Deal means support for Jim Crow? [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)16. That process of change also included Truman, Humphrey, and Kennedy
It was Truman who desegregated the armed forces in 1948. He was pushed further on the issue when the civil rights forces, with a young Hubert Humphrey as their leader, secured a strong civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic platform, spurring the Dixiecrat walkout.
The party's support for civil rights caused the erosion and then collapse of what had been the "Solid South":
In the 1960 election, the Democratic nominee, John F. Kennedy, continued his party's tradition of selecting a Southerner as the vice presidential candidate (in this case, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas). Kennedy and Johnson, however, both supported civil rights. In October 1960, when Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested at a peaceful sit-in in Atlanta, Georgia, Kennedy placed a sympathetic phone call to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and Robert Kennedy helped secure King's release. King expressed his appreciation for these calls. Although King made no endorsement, his father, who had previously endorsed Republican Richard Nixon, switched his support to Kennedy.
Because of these and other events, the Democrats lost ground with white voters in the South, as those same voters increasingly lost control over what was once a whites-only Democratic Party in much of the South. The 1960 election was the first in which a Republican presidential candidate received electoral votes in the South while losing nationally. Nixon carried Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida. Though Kennedy also won Alabama and Mississippi, slates of unpledged electors, representing Democratic segregationists, would award those states electoral votes to Harry Byrd.
The parties' positions on civil rights continued to evolve in the run up to the 1964 election. The Democratic candidate, Johnson, who had become president after Kennedy's assassination, spared no effort to win passage of a strong Civil Rights Act of 1964. After signing the landmark legislation, Johnson said to his aide, Bill Moyers: I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.[30]
Because of these and other events, the Democrats lost ground with white voters in the South, as those same voters increasingly lost control over what was once a whites-only Democratic Party in much of the South. The 1960 election was the first in which a Republican presidential candidate received electoral votes in the South while losing nationally. Nixon carried Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida. Though Kennedy also won Alabama and Mississippi, slates of unpledged electors, representing Democratic segregationists, would award those states electoral votes to Harry Byrd.
The parties' positions on civil rights continued to evolve in the run up to the 1964 election. The Democratic candidate, Johnson, who had become president after Kennedy's assassination, spared no effort to win passage of a strong Civil Rights Act of 1964. After signing the landmark legislation, Johnson said to his aide, Bill Moyers: I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.[30]
In fact, although the OP is correct in generalizing that the New Deal left racial discrimination in place, even FDR played a role in the Democratic Party's shift. He signed an executive order "banning discriminatory employment practices by Federal agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war-related work," and he created the Fair Employment Practice Committee to enforce the order.
I'm absolutely not belittling LBJ's role in signing the Civil Rights Act, along with the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act. Nevertheless, other Democratic leaders deserve to share in the credit for the change.
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Where did the idea come from that support for a second New Deal means support for Jim Crow? [View all]
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
OP
No, it's the truth... The Democratic Party changed under LBJ when he passed civil & voting rights
MrScorpio
Sep 2017
#2
Pointing out the shortcomings in an historical era doesn't "Poisoning" everything in that era.
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#13
You'll of course, support your allegation with evidence and provide a link
LanternWaste
Sep 2017
#67
That's horrible about the kid. And we need to protect choice But we have federal civil right laws.
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#108
And we need them. AFAIK, nobody on our side of the spectrum is minimizing the need for them.
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#119
you made the claim that we don't have to worry about government programs discriminating
dsc
Sep 2017
#122
I take your point with regards to antidiscrmination measures for the LGBTQ community.
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#123
We can't totally establish social justice first, in complete isolation from economic justice.
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#59
The reason that happened in the Thirties was that the Democratic congressional leadership
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#64
And that brings us back to the fact that there can be NO Economic Justice without Social Justice
Lee Adama
Sep 2017
#74
Social justice issue drive economic justice for those who aren't white straight men
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#92
There's no difference between doing both at at the same time, which we would do
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#109
That's not what I get from Sanders. He is all about economic justice & nothing about social justice
Lee Adama
Sep 2017
#125
Tell that to those who are yelling at anyone who won't sponsor "Medicare for all." (nt)
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#143
Again... have you seen the news? Dems are waffling on whether women's health care
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#80
A tiny handful are waffling. But choice, at this point, isn't covered by federal civil rights laws
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#97
A very public and vocal group is advocating for waffling. One of whom is the most vocal of all.
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#144
Reps were racist because people electing them were racist - not vice versa. (nt)
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#93
There was a lot of racism-but if it hadn't been for the Southern committee chairs
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#100
I mean economic justice for ALL-I've never meant it exclusively for white men.
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#101
So now you understand that people can indeed say that the New Deal was made smoother by
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#142
It's not an actual idea, it's a huge misunderstanding of the point that is made that
ehrnst
Sep 2017
#11
Not focusing on race but blacks and women make up large part of the democratic party.
melanctha
Sep 2017
#83
I always thought Libertarians and AnCaps were the group of FDR Revisionists.
HughBeaumont
Sep 2017
#19
We should discuss the health care we can get now...the ACA with a public option down the road. The
Demsrule86
Sep 2017
#23
When there is no chance of getting it for the foreseeable future and every chance that support for
Demsrule86
Sep 2017
#27
There is no chance for progress as the GOP won't even bring it to the floor...
Demsrule86
Sep 2017
#96
I read these threads, and no one said that. However, the idea that the 'new deal' was the be all
Demsrule86
Sep 2017
#22
Were did the idea that isolationism-nativism-populism-protectionism-and anti-capitalism...
Expecting Rain
Sep 2017
#33
Except Sanders, despite his title, isn't a socialist in the sense FDR understood the term
white_wolf
Sep 2017
#36
Nor was Huey "Share the Wealth/Every Man A King" Long, who was FDR's mortal enemy.
Expecting Rain
Sep 2017
#48
And we all agree that it was wrong that people of color were left out of the original New Deal
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#51
guess we need to tear down the fdr statues along with the other confederate generals
dembotoz
Sep 2017
#77
Ken, you seem like a decent person. I know you and I disagree on some issues.
Blue_true
Sep 2017
#149
For too many, it is impossible to separate the New Deal label from 1930's racism and sexism
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#155
And there's no possibility that New Deal-type measures passed today would exclude people of color
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#61
The whites who turned right didn't do that because social programs were open to all.
Ken Burch
Sep 2017
#115
FDR took TR's Square Deal, added more, removed much more and re-branded it as the Fair Deal
LanternWaste
Sep 2017
#65
Exactly WHO is saying that? It appears that this particular "objection" exists only in your mind.
NurseJackie
Sep 2017
#84
We can have both Social & Economic justice at the same time. IF WE fight for both!
JoeOtterbein
Sep 2017
#102
It is a cynical tactic to try to avoid supporting progessive economic issues.
Willie Pep
Sep 2017
#116