South Carolina

Four days after the Democratic National Convention adjourned in 1948 from its labor of nominating Harry Truman, a Democratic opposition leaped fully armed from the grass roots. On July 17, at a convention in Birmingham, Alabama, 6,000 rebellious Southern Democrats organized the States Rights Party in opposition to the regular Democratic ticket, naming Governor James Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as its Presidential nominee. Governor Thurmond, with no national organization, without financial support, without a prayer in the political lexicon, took 39 electoral votes away from Mr. Truman.

This was the fruit of the little rebellion. The Southern Democratic Party, saddled, cinched, and spurred by New Deal Democrats, bucked. It didn’t throw the ruling element. Mr. Truman, with an assist from Mr. Dewey who was engaged in water walking without water-wings, won the election. Everybody forgot about the States Rights Party, the “Dixiecrats,” the revolt in the deep South. It was dead and done with. Or so it seemed.

SJ

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Sam M. Jones

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Presidential Election

Four days after the Democratic National Convention adjourned in 1948 from its labor of nominating Harry Truman, a Democratic opposition leaped fully armed from the grass roots. On July 17, at a convention in Birmingham, Alabama, 6,000 rebellious Southern Democrats organized the States Rights Party in opposition to the regular Democratic ticket, naming Governor James Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as its Presidential nominee. Governor Thurmond, with no national organization, without financial support, without a prayer in the political lexicon, took 39 electoral votes away from Mr. Truman.

This was the fruit of the little rebellion. The Southern Democratic Party, saddled, cinched, and spurred by New Deal Democrats, bucked. It didn’t throw the ruling element. Mr. Truman, with an assist from Mr. Dewey who was engaged in water walking without water-wings, won the election. Everybody forgot about the States Rights Party, the “Dixiecrats,” the revolt in the deep South. It was dead and done with. Or so it seemed.