The Dixiecrats or the southern Democrats were the party of the Jim Crow laws! Some of the southern Democrats were Strom Thurmond, Harry F. Byrd, and other fled the party because of Kennedy and Johnson. Why? Because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964!
The Civil Rights Act was brought about by the Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. The marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and President Eisenhower sending federal troops to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. and by the Freedom Rides and the Greensboro Sit-Ins... all on the evening news that the nation watched. (We also leaned from the civil rights protests... the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In, the Black Cat Tavern, and the Compton's Cafeteria Uprising, all lead up to the Stonewall Uprising and expanded the scope of justice movements to include us.).
Kennedy and Johnson also saw the nation changed and the injustice the Blacks faced everyday and said enough is enough and pass the Civil Rights Act and that was followed by Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the southern Democrats said "F**k this! and became Republicans.
From that point on, the Republican Party increasingly became associated with opposition to civil rights, especially in the South. The Southern states, once Democratic strongholds, began voting Republican, while liberal Northerners increasingly aligned with the Democratic Party.
“States’ rights” became a coded phrase for preserving segregation and opposing federal civil rights enforcement. Republicans also emphasized “law and order” in reaction to the uprisings in places like Watts and Newark. Eventually, the GOP formed alliances with religious conservatives, helping to reshape the party into what it is today.
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This meme was circulating on Facebook,
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