If one were to search the internet with the phrase “southern strategy” you would find that it has become common knowledge in the Black community as well as the main stream media that the GOP, starting with Richard Nixon, had a strategy to win southern states by appealing to the anti-civil rights sentiment of the [...]

Many would have us believe that from Nixon forward the south (which according to them is statically racist) would support the Republican agenda because the GOP, as a political party, is racist. Again the evidence does not support the conclusion. In 1976 Jimmy Carter would sweep the southern states, including all the former dixiecrat states. In 1980 Ronald Reagan defeats Carter by taking 44 of 50 states. In 1984 Reagan carries every state but Minnesota in a crushing defeat of Mondale. Have the so-called “racist” policies of Reagan spread throughout the country? In 1992 and 1996 Bill Clinton would split the southern vote with his opponents.  This says more about the candidates and policies of the parties than it does about their stances on race relations. These elections were about the economy not race relations.

After the trouncing of Wallace in the 1968 election, racial politics was left to Black and White liberals painting the GOP as racist and rewriting the political history of the United States. They would spread urban legends to keep Blacks as a powerful voting block for the Democrat Party. This is not to say that there were never any racists in the GOP. I am sure there were and maybe still are, but history has proven that segregation, slavery and Jim Crow were vestiges of the Democrat Party. Those who held to these ideals either died or changed their thinking. An example of this is George C. Wallace who later apologized for his stances on Civil rights. People can change for the better. Old hatreds eventually die and a new generation and ideology take their place. Racism is not relegated to the southern states, nor will it ever be totally eradicated. Racists now find themselves without a party to plead their cause and if we are lucky they never will again.

To this date every political campaign has a southern strategy, East coast strategy and a West coast strategy. There are strategies for women and men, college age voters, minorities, immigrants, businessmen and women. One cannot assume that therefore there must be some kind of ill will or intent to win the vote of certain constituents. It is the nature of politics to steal away votes from a voting block that either has never heard your message or never been asked for their support. Democrats know this and thus are afraid that Republicans will one day make in roads into the Black community and erode the 90% voting block that supports their candidates. Thus we expose the urban legends for what they are, hoping that knowledge will chase away ignorance and misinformation equipping people to make decisions based on facts not fables.

Eric M. Wallace, PhD
Dr. Wallace is the founder and Publisher of Freedom's Journal Magazine. He has been in publishing for over 15 years and in ministry over 30 years. He holds a PhD in Biblical studies and is an ordained minister. He also serves as the CEO of Wallace Multimedia Group, LLC, the parent company of this magazine. He is married to Jennifer Wallace and they have two sons Eric and Greg.