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One of the topics touched on in several articles in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly (“Race, History and Obama’s Second Term”) is the intersection of race relations in America with the political party system. It is a trickier subject than is often assumed.
Highly simplistic American histories (e.g., the kind I was raised on) often imply that the Civil War was touched off by the replacement of a conservative Whig Party in the North by an more-or-less aggressively anti-slavery Republican Party which conquered the South by military means and then struggled with Jefferson’s and Jackson’s Democratic Party for control of the country until the old coalitions broke up and reversed positions over the New Deal and the Great Society, which takes us right up to contemporary politics.
It’s a little more complicated than that. The formation of the Republican Party did indeed trigger the Civil War, but mainly because it destroyed the bipartisan silence over slavery that the Second Party System, with its two parties anchored more or less equally in South and North, relied upon. The GOP voting coalition did indeed center on former Whigs, but a significant element (and a disproportionate share of its leadership) was composed of antislavery Democrats, many of them leaving the Jefferson-Jackson Party by way of the Liberty and Free Soil parties (the latter nominated as its 1848 presidential candidate none other than the founder of the Jacksonian Democratic Party, Martin Van Buren). As the Whigs collapsed and the American (or “Know-Nothing”) and Constitutional Union parties failed and war arrived, former southern Whigs moved en masse to the Democratic Party, which after the Civil War did indeed become the explicit White Man’s Party all over the country, even as former slaves universally supported Republicans. So race, the Great Unmentionable subject in the Second Party System quickly became central to the Third (though the Populists created the the very brief but tantalizing possibility of a biracial coalition in the South).
Race again became relatively Unmentionable as the White Man’s Party gradually adopted liberal political principles and policies requiring an activist federal government (even in the poverty-stricken South) in the 1920s, while Republicans became associated with an ideology of limited government. The last overtly racist president was Democrat Woodrow Wilson; the last overtly racist presidential nominee was probably Democrat James Cox in 1920 (whose running-mate was FDR). There were a balance of racial progressives and reactionaries (with reactionaries mostly holding the reins) in both parties until the Civil Rights Act put into motion the dynamics that created the new party coalitions enduring today.
The alternating silence and outspokenness on racial issues in the competition between major parties has served to underline how poorly America has done in achieving racial equality, and how strongly the temptation persists to pretend race is no longer an issue. From very different perspectives and for wildly different reasons, both conservative Republicans and Barack Obama now like to talk about a post-racial politics and society. We clearly have not arrived.
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Anonymous on January 14, 2013 6:21 PM:
As much as you want in the people's hearts will always be hatred already racial, class, religion and among others, I think it is healthier to consolidate progress in stages where these evils were supported been completed and to be consolidated as a nation in achieving goals that benefit all and not as individual members ... because people on the issue of racism to achieve profits profit and that is wrong. We need to think how far this.
taylor
James M on January 14, 2013 7:20 PM:
My sainted Mother was the only Black teacher in the English department of my high school. She once told me that the other teachers in the teacher's cafeteria were always asking her, "R.... what do Black people think about .....(various subjects)". One day she replied, "You know, sometimes we forget we are Black but you keep reminding us!".
I've always loved that story and it became my symbol of race relations in America. Blacks and other minorities were constantly 'reminded' of their minority status in the Presidential election, principally by GOP pols. This was obviously one of the factors that contributed to BO's landslide victory.
I consciously tried to live a 'post-racial' life because I didn't want to share the sense of victimization that many of my childhood friends had. This definitely required a certain denial of reality on my part, but the decision worked for me. However, as I grew older, I sometimes regretted having not more actively embraced my ethnic heritage. I think this is a dilemma that many minorities face.
However, even having written all the above, I still think that the symbol of the leader of the Free World being a Black man is tremendously powerful, and in its own way, transformational. Despite all the troubles that we have and will face, BO has opened a door which can never be closed again.
barkleyg on January 14, 2013 7:35 PM:
This ol Liberal's history of race and political parties is much more concise, if not as accurate as Ed's.
After the Civil War, when the Republican's victory meant No slavery, the south was never going to vote for those damn Republicans. The south was the kingdom of Racist Democrats;
as usual historically, the rest of the country danced to a different tune.
Good ol boy Strom Thurman showed the south's True colors, and split the Democratic party into Democrats, and DIXIECRATS.
Truman won, the Dixiecrats carried the south.
The 1960's were like the 1860's, except this time the roles were reversed. Johnson knew, and it turns out so did Nixon and SAINT RONNY, that the Civil Rights Act would reverse the roles of the Political parties in the South. Basically, between the BS call for "States Rights( when whites knew who they were, and more importantly, the blacks knew WHO they were)" crap., and Saint Ronnie starting his campaign in Philadelphia Mississippi, the RACISTS heard the "DOG WHISTLE( whistling dixie? bad joke)" and left the Democratic Party to join their "brothers" in the Republican party.
Harsh, but short and very accurate. Fire away!
John on January 15, 2013 1:01 AM:
Wouldn't John Davis (Who would later argued for the Topeka Board of Education in defense of segregation before the Supreme Court) be the last overtly racist presidential nominee? What did Cox do that compares to that?
JM917 on January 15, 2013 8:20 AM:
I agree with John (immediately above) in suggesting John W. Davis as the last overtly racist presidential candidate. Indeed, Davis's last appearance in national affairs would be to serve as counsel against what would become the Brown decision.
Davis was the dark horse candidate that the Democrats finally came up with as their "compromise" offering in 1924, after 103 ballots. That compromise had become necessary because the 2/3 rule gave southern Democrats veto power in nominating presidential candidates, and in 1924 the convention had been deadlocked between KKK-endorsed William McAdoo (Wilson's son-in-law) and Al Smith. Davis, a Wall Street lawyer who happened to hale from West Virginia, had been a prominent figure in the Wilson administation and would continue to be a southern-aligned Democratic power broker down to the early post-WW II years.
Introduced back in Jacksonian days to protect slaveowning interests in the party, the 2/3 rule wasn't abolished until FDR's second nominating convention of 1936. In retrospect, that abolition marked a milestone in political realignments over race.
JM917 on January 15, 2013 8:29 AM:
I should have said that J.W. Davis was the last MAJOR PARTY overly racist presidential candidate. Of course, after 1924 would come Strom Thurmond (Diziecrat, 1948) and George Wallace ("American Independent," 1968). The fact that those guys had to run as third-party splitters, rather than be able to block the Democrats from nominating Harry Truman and Hubert Humphrey, testifies to the impact of abolishing the 2/3 rule. That abolition also facilitated the eventual migration of the overt racists into the Republican Party once Nixon's "southern strategy" began to kick in.