Charleston County Public Library

Paths out of Dixie, the democratization of authoritarian enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972, Robert Mickey

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-530) and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Paths out of Dixie

bibliography

687685264

Robert Mickey

Princeton studies in American politics. Historical, international, and comparative perspectives

the democratization of authoritarian enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972

The transformation of the American South, from authoritarian to democratic rule, is the most important political development since World War II. It has re-sorted voters into parties, remapped presidential elections, and helped polarize Congress. Most important, it is the final step in America's democratization. Paths Out of Dixie illuminates this sea change by analyzing the democratization experiences of Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Robert Mickey argues that Southern states, from the 1890s until the early 1970s, constituted pockets of authoritarian rule trapped within and sustained by a federal democracy. These enclaves, devoted to cheap agricultural labor and white supremacy, were established by conservative Democrats to protect their careers and clients. From the abolition of the whites-only Democratic primary in 1944 until the national party reforms of the early 1970s, enclaves were battered and destroyed by a series of democratization pressures from inside and outside their borders. Drawing on archival research, Mickey traces how Deep South rulers, dissimilar in their internal conflict and political institutions, varied in their responses to these challenges. Ultimately, enclaves differed in their degree of violence, incorporation of African Americans, and reconciliation of Democrats with the national party. These diverse paths generated political and economic legacies that continue to reverberate today.--Back cover

Part One: Deep South Enclaves, 1890-1940 -- Southern Political Development in Comparative Perspective -- The Founding and Maintenance of Southern Enclaves, 1890-1940 -- Deep South Enclaves on the Eve of the Transition -- Part Two: The Transition Begins, 1944-48 -- Suffrage Restriction under Attack, 1944-47 -- Driven from the House of Their Fathers: Southern Enclaves and the National Party, 1947-48 -- Part Three: The Clouds Darken, 1950-63 -- "No Solution Offers Except Coercion": Brown, Massive Resistance, and Campus Crises, 1950-63 -- "No Task for the Amateur or Hothead": Mississippi and the Battle of Oxford -- "Integration with Dignity": South Carolina Navigates the Clemson Crisis -- "No, Not One": Georgia's Massive Resistance and the Crisis at Athens -- Part Four: Modes of Democratization and Their Legacies since 1964 -- The Deathblows to Authoritarian Rule: The Civil and Voting Rights Acts and National Party Reform, 1964-72 -- Harnessing the Revolution? Three Paths Out of Dixie -- Legacies and Lessons of the Democratized South

Democratization of authoritarian enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972