A Timeline of Civil Rights and the Democratic & Republican Parties

There are events that we should all be aware of that led to the civil rights movement and the great switch between the Democratic and Republican parties. Many of those on the right give the argument that the Republican party freed the slaves and therefore the Democratic Party has a history of racism. But let’s look closer at history. Let’s look at what actually took place and how the parties became what they are today.

The “great switch” between the parties happened over time. It did not happen on one single day or by one single event, but over a great amount of time. A realignment took place over decades, and we’ve tried to lay that out for you here.

1854- Creation of the Republican Party

The Republican Party (newly re-formed on March 20,1954) founded as a response to the Kansas- Nebraska act, a law that threatened to extend slavery into new territories. As anti- slavery sentiment intensified, former Whigs and disaffected Democrats coalesced into a new political movement dedicated to preventing the spread of slavery.
At the time the Democratic Party, increasingly aligned itself with southern pro slavery interests.

1860 – Republican Natl Convention

Held May 16-18 in Chicago
The platform adopted called for non-extension of slavery, support of transcontinental Railroad, a Homestead law encouraging western settlement, improvements in infrastructure.
At the time the Democratic Party, divided over the issue of slavery, would split into northern and southern factions, each nominating their own candidate. This was to Lincoln’s advantage in the general election.

1860- 1865- Abraham Lincoln (Republican) Elected President in a decisive victory and a majority in the electoral college.

Southern slaveholding states immediately feared losing power.

1861-1865 – Civil War

Southern states seceded to preserve slavery. South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina also
succeeded within weeks. These states made up what came to be known as the Confederacy.
Most white Southerners supported succession and segregation and identified as Democrats at that time.
The economy of the northern states was rapidly modernizing and diversifying. Northerners had invested heavily in an expansive, and varied transportation system that included canals, roads, steamboats and railroads, and financial industries, such as banking and insurance, and enlarged communication communications network that featured inexpensive, widely available, newspapers, magazines, and books along with the telegraph.
The economy of the southern states was based largely on plantations that produced commercial crops, such as cotton that relied heavily on slave labor. Rather than invest in factories or railroads, Southerners invested their money in slaves, even more than in land.

1865 − President Lincoln is assassinated

1865 — President Andrew Johnson ascends to the presidency (Southern Democrat)

Reconstruction begins after Lincoln’s assassination.
Johnson’s presidency was marked by significant conflict with Congress over Reconstruction policies
He vetoed key legislation, including an extension of the Freedmen’s Bureau bill in the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which aimed to protect black Americans. Congress, however, overrode his veto.
The passage of the 14th amendment, granting citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born in the United States, also occurred against Johnson’s objections.
Southern states begin passing Black Codes to control newly freed Black people.
Andrew Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 to 1867, was the initial phase of reintegrating the 11 seceded states back into the Union following the Civil War. His approach was characterized by leniency and minimal requirements for the former Confederate states.
Political Power Restoration: Johnson’s lenient policies allowed many former Confederate leaders to regain political power, which created tensions with freedmen and Northern lawmakers.
Amnesty and Pardon: Johnson offered pardons to most Southern whites, excluding high- ranking Confederate leaders and wealthy planters. Many of these individuals later received individual pardons.

1865−1866: Ku Klux Klan formed in Tennessee by former confederate soldiers

Extended into every South State by 1870
White terror groups attack Black voters and elected officials.

1877 – President Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)

Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction.
Federal troops removed from the South.
Jim Crow segregation expands.
The Compromise of 1877 gave white Southerners their chance to stop the military occupation of the South. At the time there was a contested election for President. In the compromise, Southern Democrats agreed not to block the vote by which Congress awarded the contested electoral votes to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, and Hayes therefore became president. In return, Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from actively intervening in the politics of Louisiana and South Carolina (the last two states occupied by federal troops). Accordingly, within two months of becoming president, Hayes ordered federal troops in Louisiana and South Carolina to return to their bases.
While Reconstruction had seen African Americans gain political power and established public school systems; it’s end led to the disenfranchisement of black voters and the relegation to low wage labor.
The removal of the federal soldiers from the streets and from statehouse offices signaled the end of the Republican Party’s commitment to protecting the civil and political rights of African Americans and marked a major political turning point in American history: it ended Reconstruction.
Despite the rollback of reconstruction’s promises, the constitutional amendments guaranteeing civil rights remained, serving as a foundation for future struggles for equality, notably, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, often referred to as the second reconstruction.

1896- Plessy vs Ferguson

This decision established the doctrine of “separate but equal “. African Americans were largely disenfranchised, relegated to low wage labor and faced, legal and extralegal violence if they challenged the established order.

1933−1945 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat)

New Deal programs created during the Great Depression.
- Many Black voters begin shifting toward Democrats because of economic programs.

1948 – President Harry Truman (Democrat)

Desegregated the U.S. military.
- Southern segregationists were furious.
- “Dixiecrats” wing formed by segregationist Democrats.

1954 – Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional.
- Massive white Southern resistance begins.
- Starts the migration by southern whites to the Republican Party

1964 – Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and becomes the Republican nominee for president that same year.

And while he claimed his opposition was based on “states ’rights” and limited government, many segregationists and Southern white conservatives embraced his campaign because they saw it as opposition to federal Civil Rights enforcement.
That election is important because it marked a major political shift: Goldwater lost nationally in a landslide, but he won several Deep South states that had historically voted Democrat.

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat) elected

Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law.
- Southern conservatives begin leaving the Democratic Party in large numbers.
- At this point, the ideologies of both the Democratic and Republican parties have almost totally switched.

1965 — Voting Rights Act Passed

Protected Black voting rights in the South.
- Strong opposition from many segregationist politicians, confirming their exit from the Democratic party.

1969 — President Richard Nixon (Republican) elected

“Southern Strategy” begins gaining national attention.
- Republican campaigns target white Southern voters upset over civil rights changes.

1980 − President Ronald Reagan (Republican) elected

He and the Republican Party launch general election campaign near Philadelphia, Mississippi, where civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.
- He emphasizes “states’rights,” a phrase heavily tied to segregation politics in the South.
- By this time, most white Southern conservatives have moved into the Republican Party, while Black voters and those whites who champion civil rights overwhelmingly aligned with Democrats because of civil rights and voting rights policies.

History shows us the long fight over many years regarding civil rights and voting rights in this country and how that influenced each political party. It was not just one event, but many events over a long period in our history. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties have changed significantly over time.

IndivisibleNWI Sources: britannica.com, thisdayinhistory.com, Library of Congress