In Part 2 of this two-part Deep Dive, we continue examining the documented history of race and racism within the Democratic Party from the early 1900s through modern American politics. We explore Woodrow Wilson's administration, the Dixiecrat movement, the Civil Rights era, political realignment, and how both major parties evolved over the second half of the twentieth century.

This episode also examines several modern political debates, including changing voter coalitions, the concept of the "soft bigotry of low expectations," and the role of the Southern Poverty Law Center in discussions about extremism.

In This Episode:

• Woodrow Wilson and segregation in the federal government
• The Birth of a Nation and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan
• The Dixiecrat movement and the 1948 election
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965
• The debate over political realignment
• Modern political coalitions
• The "soft bigotry of low expectations"
• The Southern Poverty Law Center

Sources & Further Reading:

Primary Sources

• Executive Order 9981 (1948)
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Southern Manifesto (1956)

Government & Educational Resources

• Library of Congress
• National Archives and Records Administration
• U.S. Senate Historical Office
• U.S. House Office of the Historian
• National Park Service
• Miller Center, University of Virginia

Recommended Books

• Eric Foner — The Second Founding
• Taylor Branch — Parting the Waters
• David Levering Lewis — W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race
• Robert A. Caro — The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• Michael J. Klarman — From Jim Crow to Civil Rights

Additional Reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Smithsonian Institution
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Disclaimer:

This episode is intended as a historical discussion based on primary sources and historical scholarship. Where historians disagree, we encourage listeners to examine the evidence, explore multiple perspectives, and draw their own informed conclusions.

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