The Republican Party: Southern White Democrats In The United States

The Union Victory in the Civil War gave freedom towards slaves, however, the process of rebuilding the south introduced significant challenges. Attempts were made to rectify the inequities of slavery and to solve the problems that arose from the readmission to the union of the 11 states that have seceded. Reconstruction has been viewed more as a commendable experiment in interracial democracy, being the era of “repair” after he Civil War. Reconstruction was an era of total failure in the government’s attempt to create and reconstruct a society that was truly democratic. Although there were political and social changes during the Reconstruction Era that granted passages of freedom for the African Americans, policies such as the Black Codes and the actions of the white southerners restricted their rights and opportunities.

Generally speaking, anyone who lives in the United States of America knows that there are two main political parties—the Republicans and the Democrats. Having two main parties has its advantages and, of course, its disadvantages. For example, in By the People James E. Monroe and Rogan Kersh (301) point out having this type of system creates “predictability and stability.” However, they also declare (301) it can “lead to a gridlock.” This is not a new concept either as there has been a divide since the beginning of both parties. The two parties more often than not disagree on various issues, while rarely agreeing on what is best for the country.

This article focuses on the rise and fall of the “black-white coalition” of populist advocates in Grimes County, TX. The period of Reconstruction gave black people opportunities and power. For instance, during this time, blacks in Grimes County successfully formed a Republican organization. Despite white-supremacists of the Democratic party seeking to end the group, black Republicans managed to retain local power and send legislators to Austin, even after the period of Reconstruction ended. A few years later, a meeting was held in Grimes County in which candidates from black and “lily-white” Republican groups, and Independent Greenbackers were nominated for county offices. Among the candidates was Independent Greenbacker Garrett Scott. Unlike other candidates, Scott had a willingness to publicly associate with blacks. In fact, the article mentions that Scott undermined the idea of white solidarity. After winning the election for county sheriff, Scott became political allies with black district clerk, Jim Kennard. The two worked together to create the black-white coalition that became the People’s Party. The People’s party did well up until 1898. However, the coalition did not sit well with the men of the democratic party. The Democrats, led by J.G. McDonald, came together and held a covert meeting in which they planned to take back county offices that populists filled. This was the first of many meetings of the White Man’s Union. The union made their debut once the spark of

Outside of the political spectrum, there is another group of organizations that have perhaps and even stronger grasp on the media than media regulators themselves. The incredibly complex and well organized drug cartels that base themselves mostly in northern Mexico and along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico are in many ways the most influential organizations in the nation’s media. As mentioned earlier, Mexican citizens were granted freedom of the press in the 1857 Federal Constitution giving them expressional rights that closely resembled the United States’ on paper. However, as the cartels ran rampant throughout the country some indirect restrictions were put on these rights. The cartels employ ruthless violence and torture in order to punish those who oppose them, including journalists and reporters who attempt to portray them in a negative light. Over the past decade “there have been ‘172 attacks on press freedom, including nine journalists and two media workers killed’” (Hernandez-Garcia 2012). As a result, anyone reporting on the drug wars is essentially risking his or her own life; a risk the majority of reporters are not willing to take. The fear of being found and captured by the cartel is enough to cause a chilling effect among reporters and even stop some news outlets from reporting on the cartel’s actions at all. That’s not to say that news of the cartels’ actions doesn’t get released to the public. Lepe summarized the media portrayals of the cartel as such:

Without a certain degree of control over the governmental levels of power, blacks end up disproportionately dependent on white-created legislation and white administration of those laws (Pohlmann, 219). The potential dangers of gerrymandering involves the distribution of blacks into districts where they are diluted into a minority or the creation of districts where blacks are an excessive majority so that an overall district majority white can be achieved (Thornburgh v. Gingles, 31). These redistricting plans severely hindered blacks ability to vote for a representative of their choice (1). However, in order to stem the progress of racially discriminating gerrymandering, these districts are examined based on the impact and district composition

For decades, the state of Texas was Democratic and then suddenly in 1998 the state flipped to Republican. Currently, Texas is the boldest Republican state in the country. For so long it was Democrat and strongly so but it has been Republican now since the nineties. The big question surrounding this topic is what happened to make it flip suddenly? Well, research provided a very strong answer that I didn’t expect to find. In 1988 two people were voted in that changed everything for Republicans; Kent Hance and Judge Thomas Phillips were the first republicans voted in since the Reconstruction. This kick started a Republican makeover of the state that all through the nineties Texans saw Republicans overtaking Democrats in every area. To understand how this went down in the nineties there must be an examination of the past. The Democratic party was the face of Texas for a century until the Republicans came back stronger than ever.

The African-American community is comprised of 34 million people, and makes up approximately 12.8 percent of the American population (Barker, Jones, Tate 1999: 3). As such, it is the largest minority group in the United States. Yet, politically, the black community has never been able to sufficiently capitalize on that status in order to receive the full benefits of life in America. Today, African-Americans, hold less than 2 percent of the total number of elected positions in this country (Tate, 1994: 3) and the number of members within the community that actually partake in voting continues to drop. In spite of these statistics, as of 1984, a telephone survey found that 70

After the end of the civil war Congress ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution, which prohibited slavery, guaranteed all citizens equal protection under the law, and gruaranted equal rights to all men. During this period of reconstruction, which was enforced by the Federal government, men of color took advantage of voting rights, educational and economic opportunities, to gain political office, economic power and basically restructuring of the society of the South. Obviously this was unacceptable to the disenfranchised southern democrats.

            If the party was like that over seventy-five years ago, and many would consider such thoughts corrupt, the Republican Party surely must have changed over such a long time. The success of the Democrats during the Great Depression and World War II led many to believe that the Republican Party was the cause of the Great Depression. Its policies certainly would direct themselves toward the contrary yet still the blame rested on them. The blame still rested

For white Southerners, they faced many problems during the Reconstruction era. What was the Reconstruction era? The Reconstruction era was a period in time that took place right after the Civil War around 1865. And this was when President Abraham Lincoln began making his plans for the physical, economic, social, and political rehabilitation in the American South. Many republicans wanted to change Southern society and politics. These things were aimed to helping out the South. Many White Southerners did not agree that there even needed to be reconstruction, and they argued and fought the changes that were being imposed on them by the Northerners, Republicans, and anyone else in the federal government. So what was Reconstruction? Reconstruction was the rebuilding of Southern government, society, infrastructure,

In order to fully grasp how Texas’ Republican Party has progressed throughout the years, one must also have an understanding of the history of the state. The first thirteen colonies of the United States were under British control, a circumstance that Texas was not a part of. Even though many other countries tried to control Texas, they were not able to do so for long periods of time, due in part, to the independent nature of the people throughout the state. Because of the constant threats Texans faced, such as invading armies from foreign countries, the struggles of living out west, amongst many others, the people became incredibly independent, freedom loving, and extremely hard working. At the start of Texas’ history Texans did all of the

After the Reconstruction era, African Americans were granted citizenry in the United States through the abolition of slavery. As blacks sought to live among American culture, white citizens, primarily based in the South, came under rage. Thus, white supremacy became prominent in the United States after the Reconstruction era, a period also called the Nadir. This erupted into a series of violent attacks against the black community and many legislations to deny blacks the immunities and privileges granted to all people in the constitution.

The Republican South: Democratization and Partisan Change takes a comprehensive look at southern politics in the United States challenges conventional notions about the rise of the Republican Party in the South. David Lublin argues that the transformation of southern politics must be seen as part of a process of democratization of the region's politics. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided a great push in this process by increasing the southern electorate. Still, Democrats prevented Republicans from taking advantage on these changes. The Democrats dominance of the regions politics and their frequent shift in adopting conservative views presented a challenge for the GOP to gain candidates or voters during election periods. Yet, electoral rules

The year 1964 marked the official beginning of the realignment of the black population. The Republican party previous to this year never officially made a stance on race, so it was never considered a partisanship issue, until now. The political decisions of Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan solidified the black democratic partisanship, as well as the Southern white republican partisanship. As the years have past the black democratic partisanship has become a racially polarized and the republicans have given up on achieving a higher black vote in elections. But maybe they should reconsider giving up and try a different approach that lets them keep their southern white vote and expand on the black vote that they are getting.

Randi Dean Professor James Simmons AFRS 161 03 December 2017 African Americans: Conservative Democrats It is no secret that African Americans are a majority democratic race. Most follow blindly behind democrats because of their families influence over the years. However common views of African Americans align with those of republicans. In the recent years republicans have came off as anti-black or systematically racist which is what deterred African Americans away.