The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States. The Southern bloc existed especially between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Most local and state officeholders in the South were Democrats, as were federal politicians elected from these states.
About Solid South in brief
The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States. The Southern bloc existed especially between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. During this period, the Democratic Party controlled state legislatures. Most local and state officeholders in the South were Democrats, as were federal politicians elected from these states. Southern Democrats disenfranchised blacks in every state of the former Confederacy at the turn of the 20th century. This resulted essentially in a one-party system, in which a candidate’s victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself. The Democrats reinforced the loyalty of white voters by emphasizing the suffering of the South during the war. The Democratic Party became the vehicle for the white supremacist \”Redeemers\”. The Ku Klux Klan, as well as other insurgent paramilitary groups such as the White League and Red Shirts from 1874, acted as the military arm of the Democratic party to disrupt Republican organizing, and intimidate and suppress black voters. Even after white Democrats regained control of state legislatures, some blacks were elected to local offices and state legislatures in the Southern states in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Solid South is a loose term referring to the states that made up the voting bloc at any point in time. For example, Maryland was rarely considered part of the Solid South, whereas Missouri, though classified as a Midwestern state by the U.S. Census, often was.
By 1876, Democrats had taken control of all state governments in the S.S., winning a cumulative total of 182 of 187 states. By the 1960s, state and local government in the south was almost entirely monopolized by Democrats. Democrats elected all but a handful of U. S. Representatives and Senators, and Democratic presidential candidates regularly swept the region – from 1880 through 1944, winning a combined sum of $1.2 billion in election funds. The South is now home to the Democratic National Committee, which controls the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the governorship of South Carolina. The GOP controls the Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. The Republican Party controls the Senate and the House, which it has controlled since the late 1960s and the early 1990s. It also controls the House and the Florida and Georgia chambers of Congress, which were once controlled by the Democrats. In the South, the Republican Party has a majority of the state legislature and the governor’s office. In some states, black voters were a majority or close to it. In several states, Republicans supported by blacks controlled state government in these states, and Democrats supported by black voters controlled state governments. In other states, blacks were overwhelmingly in favor of the GOP, and Republicans were in control of the local legislatures in these areas. In many areas, such as eastern Tennessee, black areas resentful of the Union had been loyal to the Union, and voted for the Republican party.
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This page is based on the article Solid South published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
