The Dixiecrats, formally known as the States’ Rights Democratic Party, emerged during the summer of 1948 as a political movement led by conservative white southern Democrats. Their primary objectives centered on upholding states’ rights, maintaining racial segregation, and resisting federal intervention in matters related to race and labor relations. The Dixiecrats represented a reaction to the declining influence of the South within the national Democratic Party and were a response to the growing push for civil rights reforms.
The roots of this political revolt can be traced back to opposition to New Deal policies, particularly labor reforms such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Wagner Act. However, the immediate catalyst for the Dixiecrat movement was President Harry Truman’s civil rights program, unveiled in February 1948. Truman’s proposals included measures to repeal the poll tax enforce anti-discrimination and make lynching a federal crime. Additionally, the inclusion of a civil rights plank in the Democratic Party’s 1948 presidential platform further alienated Southern conservatives. The political mobilization of African Americans in the South, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1944 decision in Smith v. Allwright, which declared white primaries unconstitutional, also heightened tensions. This decision led to significant increases in African American voter registration, with more than half a million African Americans registering to vote in the 1946 Democratic primaries across the South.
The Dixiecrat movement found its strongest support in southern states with large African American populations. In Alabama, for instance, Truman’s civil rights proposals exacerbated long-standing power struggles between agricultural interests in the state’s Black Belt region and industrial conservatives allied with New Deal liberals. Prominent figures in Alabama’s Dixiecrat faction included former governor Frank Dixon, state Democratic Party chairman Gessner T. McCorvey, Birmingham attorney Horace Wilkinson, and Birmingham public safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, among others. These leaders sought to leverage their control over party machinery rather than build a grassroots movement.
In Alabama’s May 1948 primary, McCorvey orchestrated a state rights referendum by requiring candidates for presidential elector positions to pledge their opposition to any Democratic nominee supporting Truman’s civil rights agenda. All 11 electors chosen in Alabama signed this pledge, effectively binding their votes to a states’ rights platform. At the Democratic National Convention in July 1948, tensions reached a boiling point when the party adopted a strong civil rights platform. In protest, half of Alabama’s delegation walked out of the convention.
Following their departure from the national convention, southern conservatives convened their gathering on July 17, 1948, in Birmingham. Approximately 6,000 participants from 13 southern states attended, with the majority hailing from South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. At this convention, South Carolina Governor J. Strom Thurmond and Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright were nominated as the Dixiecrats’ presidential and vice-presidential candidates, respectively. The Dixiecrats aimed to secure the electoral votes of southern states to prevent either Truman or Republican candidate Thomas Dewey from obtaining the majority needed to win the presidency. Their strategy hinged on forcing the election into the House of Representatives, where they believed southern Democrats could deadlock proceedings until one of the major parties agreed to abandon its civil rights platform.
The Dixiecrats’ platform explicitly opposed federal anti-lynching legislation, anti-poll tax measures, and the establishment of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission. It also pledged to uphold segregation and promote white supremacy. The party’s success depended on persuading individual states to pledge their Democratic electors to Thurmond and Wright. In Alabama, this task was simplified due to the earlier binding of electors during the primary. Despite their efforts, Truman won the 1948 presidential election in a surprising upset on November 2. The Dixiecrats carried only four states—Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana—where Thurmond and Wright were listed as Democratic nominees. The party secured just 39 electoral votes, far too few to influence the election outcome significantly.
The Dixiecrats’ influence in Alabama was short-lived. By 1950, control of the state Democratic Party had reverted to national party loyalists. While the Dixiecrats are often dismissed as a failed third party, their impact on southern politics was profound. The movement marked a significant break in the South’s historical allegiance to the National Democratic Party and ushered in an era of political realignment. White Southerners grappled with various strategies to resist racial progress during this period.
Many Dixiecrats became prominent members of organizations like the White Citizens’ Councils and other groups associated with “Massive Resistance” to desegregation during the 1950s and 1960s. Although the Dixiecrat Party itself did not survive beyond 1948, its organizational framework and ideological principles influenced subsequent political developments. Some members returned to the Democratic Party, while others voted as independents or aligned with alternative political movements in later elections.
Since its inception, the term “Dixiecrat” has evolved into a broader descriptor for white southern Democrats who opposed civil rights legislation. While their immediate political aspirations were not realized, the Dixiecrats played a pivotal role in shaping Southern resistance to racial equality and altering the region’s political landscape for decades to come.