The Former Confederacy & Modern American Politics, Part Five

In the mid 1950s, a black lady in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Alabama, as the other former Confederate states, had laws mandating segregation; in this specific case, segregation on Montgomery's bus system. Parks' arrest brought a boycott of the bus system led by Martin Luther King, Jr., who became the head of the movement to end discrimination and to promote civil rights. The Montgomery bus segregation also sparked the filing of a lawsuit using the similar cases of five other black citizens who had been arrested for refusal to give up their seats to white passengers. One of the black ladies was Aurelia Browder, after whom the lawsuit case got its name, "Browder v. Gayle." Gayle was William A. Gayle, the mayor of Montgomery. A panel of federal judges in U.S. District Court declared the bus segregation law unconstitutional, as it violated equal protection, as laid down in the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War amendment that had been heavily and bitterly opposed by the former Confederate states. A few months later the United States Supreme Court affirmed the decision, and Montgomery's bus system was ordered to desegregate. 
 
Martin Luther King and civil rights marchers led protests against other cases of segregation in the former Confederate states. As the segregation laws were challenged more and more, white citizens of these states began to look to politicians other than Democrats, whose national leaders more and more supported desegregation and attempts to bridge the racial equality gap in American society. In previous segments of this series, I've shown how solidly Democratic the former Confederate states were, but now, I'll be showing how these states began a long process of shifting, at the various governmental levels, to the Republicans.

In the 1964 election, then sitting president, Texan Lyndon Johnson, was nominated by the Democratic Party to run for a term of his own, with Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his vice presidential running mate.* The Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater, a senator from Arizona, who chose Congressman William Miller of New York as his running mate. Goldwater was known for his direct and outspoken remarks, including heavy criticism of Republican Dwight Eisenhower's presidential administration of the 1950s; however, while Goldwater "said" he supported the desegregation of the former Confederate states and other parts of the country, he also "said" that he felt it was not the task of the federal government to see to that desegregation, but rather that it was up to the individual states to decide how to desegregate. Racists, segregationists, far right wing political elements, including militarists, saw Goldwater's stances on various issues as giving them what they wanted, or being close to their own beliefs. Democrats, and even a number of Republicans, called Goldwater an extremist. He endeared himself to many on the political right by declaring, "...extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice," but then, "... and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Of course he seemed to be VERY moderate to enforce desegregation laws. While the overall election was a Johnson landslide, there were some surprises.

Goldwater carried some states of the old Confederacy: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,** and he received far more votes in the other Confederate states than most Republican presidential candidates usually received. In the Senate, segregationist Strom Thurmond was elected in South Carolina, but this time as a Republican! In the House, 5 of 8 of Alabama's members were Republicans, 2 of 12 of Florida's members were Republicans, Georgia had one Republican of 10, 1 of 5 in Mississippi was a Republican, 2 of 11 in North Carolina were Republicans, 3 of 9 in Tennessee were Republicans, and 2 of 10 in Virginia were Republicans.

* Lyndon Johnson was vice president under the presidency of John F. Kennedy, with the two taking office in January 1961. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, and Johnson became president.

** Goldwater won only one other state, his own state of Arizona, but he won it by less than 4800 votes. Overall, Johnson received slightly more than 61% of the popular vote to Goldwater's almost 38.5%. In the actual deciding electoral vote, Johnson received 486 votes to Goldwater's 52.

WORD HISTORY:
Reverse-This word, distantly related to "verse" (lines of poetry) and "revert" (both borrowed by English and of Latin derivation), and also, "wreath" and "writhe" (both original English words from its Germanic roots), goes back to Indo European "werteh," an extended form of Indo European "wer," which had the notion of "to turn;" thus also, "to curve or bend." This gave Latin "revertere," which meant, "to turn back, to turn around, to return to a place." ^ One of the participle forms of this verb, "reversus," was used adjectivally; thus, "returned, turned around." This was picked up by Latin-based Old French as "revers," meaning, "turned to the opposite;" thus also, "contrary." English borrowed the word about 1300. The noun form "seems" to have been derived from the adjective in the early 1300s, but the verb, meaning, "to go in the opposite of forward, to go in the opposite of the previous direction," was borrowed in the early 1300s from Old French "reverser," "to turn back around, to go back."  

^ The "re" prefix in Latin generally means "again" or "back," but its origin is unclear.