Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 1)

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964

By Larry Elder, Mar. 29, 2014

A big reason that blacks hate the GOP is that party’s alleged use -- during the ‘60s and beyond -- of the so-called “Southern Strategy.”

That is, the GOP supposedly made -- and many say continues to make -- both naked and subtle racial appeals to white racist voters: Vote for the GOP and we’ll promote policies to oppress blacks. Never mind that as a percentage of the party, more Republicans voted for the civil rights bill than did Democrats.

The author of the term “Southern Strategy,” Pat Buchanan, then a speechwriter for Richard Nixon, described his “strategy” very differently from that way today’s critics characterize it:

            "We would build our Republican Party,” Buchanan said at the time, “on a foundation of states' rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the ‘party of [Democratic Georgia Gov. Lester] Maddox, [1966 Democratic challenger against Spiro Agnew for Maryland Gov. George] Mahoney and [Democratic Alabama Gov. George] Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.’”

Why do those offended by the “Southern Strategy” give a pass to the LBJ’s racist rationale for supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964? These quotes are from “Inside The White House” by respected investigative journalist, Ronald Kessler:

“I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” -- Lyndon B. Johnson to two governors on Air Force One

And:

“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.” -- LBJ

Finally, Jim Crow could not have survived but for government-imposed de jure segregation. If all the rednecks wanted not to trade with blacks, why would there be a to need pass laws to make these racists do what they are all supposedly doing anyway?

This is from Thomas Sowell’s book, “Preferential Policies, An International Perspective”:

“Even after such Jim Crow laws were passed, the streetcar company in Mobile initially refused to comply, and in Montgomery it was reported in the early years that blacks simply continued to sit wherever they pleased. In Jacksonville, the streetcar company delayed enforcing the segregation seating law of 1901 until 1905. Georgia’s state law of 1891 segregating the races was ignored by the streetcar companies in Augusta until 1898, in Savannah until 1899, and in the latter city was not fully enforced until 1906. In Mobile, the streetcar company publicly refused to enforce the Jim Crow laws of 1902, until its streetcar conductors began to be arrested and fined for non-compliance with the law. In Tennessee, the streetcar company opposed the state legislation imposing Jim Crow seating in 1903, delayed enforcement after the law was passed, and eventually was able to get the state courts to declare it unconstitutional.”

Related:  The Elder Statement: Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 2)

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