Southern strategy

The Republican electoral approach that sought to attract white Southern voters, in part through opposition to federal civil-rights policies. It reshaped party competition across the South.

Richard Nixon: The 37th president of the United States, whose 1968 and 1972 campaigns appealed to white Southern voters. His campaigns made the Southern strategy a prominent national electoral approach.
Civil Rights Act of 1964: A federal law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations and employment and strengthening civil-rights enforcement. Its passage intensified political conflict over federal civil-rights policy.
Republican Party: One of the two major political parties in the United States, founded in 1854. The strategy helped expand Republican strength among white Southern voters.
New Deal coalition: The Democratic electoral alliance built around Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, including workers, urban voters, and many white Southerners. Its weakening helps explain the voter movement the strategy sought to accelerate.
Law and order: A political slogan emphasizing public order and stronger responses to crime and unrest. Nixon used law-and-order appeals to reach voters unsettled by protest and social change.
Voting Rights Act of 1965: A federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and authorizing federal oversight in covered jurisdictions. Its enforcement made federal intervention in Southern elections a central political issue.
Solid South: The long period when the South voted overwhelmingly Democratic in national elections after Reconstruction. The strategy helped weaken this regional Democratic voting pattern.
Republican moderation on civil rights: A postwar Republican position supporting some federal civil-rights measures while differing over their scope and enforcement. It contrasts with the strategy's appeal through resistance to federal civil-rights policies.
States' rights: The principle that powers not assigned to the federal government belong to the states or the people. Its language could oppose federal civil-rights enforcement while signaling resistance indirectly.
Barry Goldwater: The Republican presidential nominee in 1964, who opposed the Civil Rights Act on constitutional grounds. His campaign's appeal in the Deep South foreshadowed later Republican gains there.

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