In 1948, President Harry Truman demonstrated his commitment to civil rights when he issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981, desegregating both the federal workforce and the military. This order was the first time a Democrat put forward civil rights laws. At this point, southern Democrats started to distance themselves from the national party. Eventually, the division was deep enough for Congress to be divided between northern and southern Democrats, and party leaders avoided calling party meetings to suppress further conflicts.1
Soon emerged a political party called the States Rights Democratic Party, known as the Dixiecrats, and Strom Thurmond emerged as a leader in the party. Thurmond, born in 1905, was raised in a one-party South and supported President Franklin Roosevelt. However, like many white Democrats in the South, he disliked the New Deal’s progressive programs. In 1946, he won the gubernatorial election in South Carolina as a moderately liberal Democrat sponsoring industrial development and government efficiency. Governor Thurmond opposed civil rights for African Americans and believed that creating new industries and economic growth would ease the regions escalating racial tensions. As the National Democratic Party continued its progressive shift towards the beginnings of Civil Rights legislation during World War II, white southern Democrats grew agitated by such actions taken by the national party.2
The tensions peaked after President Truman spoke in favor of Civil Rights legislation in 1948. His stance made the status of African Americans a national issue for the first time since Reconstruction. Additionally, white Southerners saw this decision as a campaign set to destroy segregation and white supremacy ideology.3
Soon after, white southerners who opposed civil rights in the South came together to form the States Rights Democratic Party. They aimed to change the upcoming election's course and bring segregation and similar laws back. With Strom Thurmond as the Dixiecrat's presidential candidate, they planned to change the outcome of the election of Harry Truman by gaining the Solid South’s 127 electoral votes, which would prevent a majority win. The election results would then be handed over to the House of Representatives to determine the outcome. However, the Dixiecrats only won South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and 39 electoral votes. They may not have changed the election or the path of the Democratic Party. Still, this political event showed that race was no longer a regional political weapon in the South, and Democratic politicians could no longer use it as one.4
African Americans held significant weight in national elections. During the Great Migration, African Americans moved to cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles which were located in electoral college “swing states.” Their vote was able to counterbalance the white southern vote Truman lost to the Dixiecrats.5
The national political implications caused by the rise of the Dixiecrats meant the end of the South’s role in the New Deal Coalition. They confirmed the liberal direction the National Democratic Party took. The Solid South was no more. Over the next fifty years, southern Democratic voters moved to the Republican Party and marked the start of a new two-party South.6
The Dixiecrats were an organization comprised of economic conservatives and segregationists in the South who wanted to reestablish the former Democratic ideologies from which the national party began to stray. A central theme that held the program of States Rights Democrats together was the fear white supremacists had against the federal government creating Civil Rights legislation that would destroy segregation laws in the South. It was this theme that caused their downfall as the New Deal and World War II altered Southern politics through economic and social legislation passed under both events.7
As southern Democrats successfully blocked Civil Rights legislation in Congress, the Dixiecrats declined in importance. Strom Thurmond continued to play a significant role in politics. His later switch to the Republican Party would reflect the political crisis soon to play out in the South and its eventual transition in presidential policies seen in the decades to come.8
Faced with Northern opposition, southern Democrats turned to conservative Republicans in the North and West for a political alliance. The alliance worked due to similar political stances on lowering taxes and the resistance to federal programs.9 This conservative coalition wielded significance in Congress during the late 1940s and 1950s.10
In Georgia, Jim Crow segregation continued to have a hold over the state. Only widespread systemic political action could shake it. However, accelerated urbanization and industrialization in the South began to foster racial change. African Americans serving in the military during World War II and Truman's executive orders furthered this change as black veterans returned to the South and demanded equal rights. While working towards equality, African Americans took part in peaceful protests, boycotts, and took legal action for fundamental rights to the courts. During the 1940s, large-scale action took the form of voter registration in Georgia, and more African Americans registered to vote in Georgia than in any other southern state.11
At this time, Eugene Talmadge was an influential political figure in Georgia, serving as governor from 1933-1937, 1941-1943, and 1946. He appealed to urban and rural white Georgians by connecting with poor white farmers and supporting conservative economics for the business elite. Talmadge was an ardent segregationist whose connection with the Ku Klux Klan and support of white supremacy was well known in Georgia. African American Georgians suffered during his time in office. In his campaign, Talmadge opposed and targeted African American voting and places for registration to keep his image of being the protector over white Georgians.12 Because of his efforts to keep African Americans from voting and registering during his campaign, Talmadge’s 1946 win symbolized the end of increased activism. Not long after his win, Talmadge died, and the state held a special election. His son, Herman Talmadge, won the special election. Just like his father, Herman disagreed with Civil Rights and African American equality. His administration ensured another decade of African American suffering with continued white supremacy and segregation in Georgia.13