Kari Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt, chapter 5, The Dixiecrat Presidential Campaign

These may be helpful in the reading for Wednesday and Friday.  

We pick up in this chapter just after Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright have received the States Rights Democratic nomination for president and VP. This chapter focuses on their campaign, on the attempts to get on the ballot, and on the election. 

What did the Dixiecrats hope to accomplish by running against the national Democrats?

What challenges did the Dixiecrats face in mounting their campaign in 1948?

How did they get on the ballot?

What issues did the Dixiecrats focus on?

Within the South, where did the Dixiecrats fare best?

What seemed to be the key to Dixiecrat success in each state?

Jack Bass and Walter De Vries, Transformation of Southern Politics, chapter 3

This chapter really focuses on the South at the end of the civil rights movement – and the authors are mostly journalists. That probably accounts for the interview style of writing. It's a little different from the style of a historian like Frederickson or political scientists like Key and Woodard.

How did the sudden surge of black voters in the south begin to affect politics in the south?

How did this generation of black politicians from the South, elected in the aftermath of the Voting Rights Act, navigate their way through Congress?

How did white Democrats respond to the arrival of black voters in the electorate?