The 1960s civil rights reforms reshaped the South’s politics and society, yet persistent inequality and economic disparities continued to shape the ‘New South’ by 1980.
Outcomes of 1960s Civil Rights Legislation
Expansion of Voting Rights
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 transformed the Southern electoral landscape. It outlawed literacy tests and other discriminatory practices that had historically suppressed African American suffrage.
Voter registration surged: By the early 1970s, Black voter registration in the Deep South rose from under 30% to over 60%.
Federal oversight: Federal examiners were deployed to ensure fair elections, reducing intimidation and fraud.
Impact on local politics: Many Southern states saw a rise in African American electoral participation, influencing municipal and state elections.
Despite these gains, gerrymandering and at-large voting systems sometimes diluted Black voting power, highlighting the tension between legal rights and practical political influence.
Advances in Education
Federal civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act (1964), mandated desegregation of schools. The enforcement of Brown v. Board of Education intensified during the 1960s and 1970s.
Busing: To achieve integration, court-ordered busing was widely implemented, especially in urban areas like Charlotte, North Carolina.
Resistance: Many white parents resisted integration, leading to ‘white flight’ to private academies and suburban schools.
Improvements: For African American students, access to better-funded schools increased, although de facto segregation persisted in many districts due to residential patterns.
Employment Opportunities
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin.
Affirmative action: Policies emerged to redress historical inequalities, opening doors for Black workers in government and large corporations.
Southern industries: Growth in manufacturing and service sectors in the South offered new jobs, and federal contracts often required non-discriminatory hiring.
Persistent barriers: Despite improvements, Black workers frequently remained concentrated in low-wage, less secure jobs. Structural unemployment and poverty rates remained higher than those for whites.
Persistence of De Facto Inequality and Economic Disparity
Socio-Economic Conditions
While legislation removed legal barriers, de facto inequality endured.
Poverty rates: Many Black communities continued to face high poverty levels, exacerbated by underfunded schools and limited access to healthcare.
Urban and rural divides: Urban ghettos in cities like Atlanta and rural poverty in states like Mississippi highlighted regional disparities.
Employment challenges: Automation and the decline of traditional industries often hit Black workers hardest.
Housing and Segregation
Housing discrimination remained a significant challenge.
Redlining and blockbusting: These practices perpetuated segregated neighbourhoods and restricted upward mobility.
Urban renewal: Sometimes dubbed ‘Negro removal,’ urban redevelopment displaced Black communities, often without adequate rehousing.
Although the Fair Housing Act (1968) aimed to combat such discrimination, enforcement was weak, and many African Americans remained confined to poorer neighbourhoods.
Southern Political Realignment
White Voter Shift to the Republicans
The political identity of the South underwent a profound transformation.
Decline of the Democratic stronghold: Traditionally, the South was a Democratic bastion, rooted in the legacy of the Civil War and segregationist policies.
Republican ‘Southern Strategy’: Exploiting white voters’ resentment towards civil rights reforms, Republican leaders like Richard Nixon and later Ronald Reagan courted conservative white Southerners.
Realignment milestones:
In the 1968 presidential election, George Wallace’s third-party bid attracted segregationist votes, indicating disaffection with the Democrats.
By the 1970s, Republican candidates increasingly dominated presidential elections in the South.
This shift signalled the emergence of the ‘New Right’, a coalition favouring limited government, states’ rights, and conservative social values.
The Rise of the ‘New Right’
The ‘New Right’ capitalised on cultural and racial anxieties.
Key features:
Opposition to federal intervention in civil rights enforcement.
Resistance to busing and affirmative action.
Emphasis on law and order, appealing to white suburban voters.
Impact: By 1980, the conservative movement’s influence was clear, setting the stage for Reagan’s victory.
The realignment reflected a broader backlash against the liberal consensus of the 1960s and entrenched conservative dominance in Southern politics for decades to come.
African American Political Representation and Community Leadership
Growth of Black Political Power
In the wake of expanded voting rights, African Americans made significant gains in political representation.
Local and state offices: By the late 1970s, hundreds of Black mayors, city councillors, and state legislators served across the South.
Notable examples include Maynard Jackson, elected Atlanta’s first Black mayor in 1973, and Richard Arrington, elected Birmingham’s first Black mayor in 1979.
Congressional representation: Although more limited, the South sent a small but growing number of African Americans to Congress.
These leaders often balanced the demands of their Black constituencies with the practical realities of operating within predominantly white political structures.
Community Leadership Beyond Politics
Political representation coincided with broader community leadership.
Churches: Black churches remained central to community organisation, civil rights advocacy, and social support.
Civic organisations: Groups like the NAACP continued to litigate and lobby for civil rights protections, focusing on issues like school desegregation and employment discrimination.
Grassroots activism: Local leaders pushed for improvements in housing, healthcare, and education, often facing opposition from conservative local governments.
Limitations and Continuing Struggles
Despite progress, Black political power faced constraints.
Economic dependency: Many Black communities relied heavily on federal aid and government jobs, leaving them vulnerable to funding cuts.
Electoral challenges: White backlash sometimes led to efforts to dilute Black voting power through redistricting and other tactics.
Internal divisions: Differences emerged within Black communities over how best to pursue equality—through radical change, mainstream politics, or grassroots community development.
The ‘New South’ by 1980
Economic Modernisation and Social Change
By 1980, the South was often described as the ‘New South’ due to rapid economic development.
Sunbelt growth: Cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, and Houston attracted new industries, corporate headquarters, and migrants from other states.
Racial dynamics: Economic growth offered some new opportunities for African Americans but did not eliminate entrenched disparities.
Symbolic integration: Black and white Southerners increasingly worked side-by-side in urban centres, but racial inequality persisted in wealth, income, and education.
Persistent Inequalities
Despite the promise of the ‘New South’:
Poverty and unemployment rates among African Americans remained significantly higher than among whites.
Educational achievement gaps continued, with under-resourced schools in many Black communities.
Political backlash: Conservative leaders often opposed further federal civil rights interventions, framing them as government overreach.
The tension between progress and enduring inequality defined the civil rights landscape and shaped the political and social trajectory of the South as it entered the Reagan era.
FAQ
Economic changes in the South during the 1970s, including industrial diversification and the growth of the Sunbelt economy, created new opportunities but did not benefit all groups equally. For white Southerners, expanding industries like aerospace, finance, and technology brought skilled jobs, urban development, and suburban growth. However, many African Americans, often concentrated in low-skilled and low-wage sectors, faced significant barriers to accessing these new opportunities due to limited educational attainment and historical discrimination. Automation and the decline of traditional industries, such as textile and agricultural work, disproportionately affected Black workers, increasing unemployment in many rural and urban areas. While urban centres like Atlanta saw a growing Black middle class and political elite, the majority still struggled with underemployment and lacked access to quality housing and healthcare. These economic divides reinforced the persistence of poverty and limited the full benefits of the region’s economic modernisation for African American communities by 1980.
After the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Black churches and religious leaders continued to play a vital role in advocating for equality and supporting their communities. Churches provided not only spiritual guidance but also practical resources, acting as community centres for education, voter registration drives, and social services. Ministers and pastors remained trusted voices, mobilising congregations to push for local improvements in housing, schooling, and employment. They also served as mediators between Black communities and local governments, helping to negotiate better services and fair treatment. Figures like Joseph Lowery and other leaders in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) shifted focus towards economic justice and fighting poverty, ensuring that the church stayed central to activism. Even as some younger activists moved towards secular or radical politics, the church preserved a sense of unity and continuity, sustaining grassroots momentum and ensuring civil rights aims did not fade from public consciousness.
Urbanisation in the South during the 1960s and 1970s brought rapid growth to cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, and Houston, attracting businesses and migrants from other regions. This growth created more diverse economic opportunities and increased interactions between Black and white Southerners in workplaces and public spaces. However, urbanisation also reinforced segregation in residential areas. As middle-class whites moved to new suburban neighbourhoods, city centres often became increasingly African American and poorer, partly due to discriminatory lending practices and ‘white flight’. Urban renewal projects displaced many Black residents from established communities, often forcing them into overcrowded and underfunded housing projects. School desegregation policies, like busing, attempted to counteract this, but these measures were often controversial and met with resistance, leading to continued patterns of de facto segregation. Thus, while urbanisation contributed to some visible integration in city life and employment, it also deepened residential and economic divides, maintaining significant racial inequalities.
African American women played a crucial but sometimes underappreciated role in leading and sustaining community progress in the South by 1980. Many women emerged as influential figures in local politics, community organisations, and social movements. They were instrumental in organising voter registration drives, leading local chapters of the NAACP, and advocating for better schools and housing. Women like Shirley Chisholm, though not Southern herself, inspired many Southern Black women to seek elected office or leadership positions. Others, such as Barbara Jordan from Texas, broke new ground by winning seats in Congress and using their platforms to champion civil rights and social justice. Beyond formal politics, women were active church leaders, educators, and grassroots organisers, often balancing community work with family responsibilities. They played a key role in mentoring the next generation, ensuring continuity in civil rights advocacy. Their dedication strengthened community networks, amplified Black voices in local governance, and helped secure social services for marginalised neighbourhoods.
Despite notable successes in gaining local offices and influencing policy, African Americans in the South faced considerable challenges in protecting and expanding their political power during the 1970s. One major obstacle was the backlash from conservative white voters and politicians, who often used tactics like redistricting and at-large voting systems to dilute Black voting strength. Court challenges and shifting electoral rules frequently undermined fair representation. Economic vulnerability also made Black political leaders reliant on federal funding, which conservative administrations sometimes cut or redirected, weakening local programmes. Additionally, internal divisions within African American communities emerged over strategies for progress, some favoured working within established political systems, while others advocated for more radical community-based activism. Media portrayal and opposition campaigns sometimes framed Black leaders as overly radical, discouraging broader electoral support. These challenges highlighted the fragile nature of the gains achieved since the 1960s and the need for constant vigilance and community mobilisation to sustain political representation in a changing South.
Practice Questions
To what extent did the civil rights legislation of the 1960s transform the social and political landscape of the South by 1980?
The 1960s civil rights legislation significantly reshaped the South’s political framework by dramatically expanding Black voter registration and enabling increased African American representation in local and state offices. However, its social impact was more limited; de facto segregation in housing and schools persisted, and economic disparities remained widespread despite affirmative action and employment reforms. The rise of the ‘New Right’ and white voter shift to Republicanism also tempered progress. Thus, while legal rights improved markedly, deeper social inequalities and regional political conservatism restricted the full realisation of civil rights aims by 1980.
Explain how Southern political realignment influenced the development of the ‘New South’ by 1980.
Southern political realignment fundamentally altered the region’s party loyalties as white voters, disillusioned with civil rights reforms, increasingly supported Republican candidates promoting states’ rights and limited government. This shift weakened the Democratic Party’s historic dominance and fostered the rise of the conservative ‘New Right’. Consequently, the South’s economic modernisation and urban growth coexisted with a political culture often resistant to federal civil rights interventions. The realignment not only consolidated conservative control but also shaped the South’s identity as part of the emerging Sunbelt, symbolising both economic progress and enduring racial and social tensions.
