Political Impact

"I think we delivered the South to the Republican party for your lifetime and mine."
- President Lyndon B. Johnson to aide Bill Moyers, August 8, 1965
The Voting Rights Act jolted the racial and political order in the South. The Democrats lost support of white conservative southerners who gravitated towards the Republican party. However, the ever increasing number of minority voters in the South may again cause the political pendulum to shift.

Political Realignment in the South

"The change in party allegiance took place
over several election cycles"
- Dr. Palazzolo, Professor of Political Science,
University of Richmond
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Source: The Economist, The Long Goodbye, November 11, 2010

"did not happen at the benefit of --President Johnson's party ...It is now the solid Republican South."
Source: Neal Conan, Host, Talk of the Nation, NPR, Dr. Ronald Walters, Professor, Dept. of Politics and Government, University of Maryland, August 2, 2005

Changing Demographics




"Demographic shifts favor the Democrats in the near future, particularly the rapid growth of a largely younger Latino electorate and a shrinking older and white electorate."
- David Bositis, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2012
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"Texas joined California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, and New Mexico in having a “majority-minority” population."
- 2010 Census briefs

Racial Polarization in Voting

During the 1960s, the Democratic party's continuing pro-civil rights stance, and President Johnson's landmark position on voting rights attracted many African Americans towards the Democratic party.
(Click graphs to enlarge)
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Source: FactCheck.org
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Source: David Bositis, Resegregation in Southern Politics, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, November 2011
"Blacks mostly voted Republican from after the Civil War ... It wasn’t until Harry Truman garnered 77 percent of the black vote in 1948 that a majority of blacks reported that they thought of themselves as Democrats...Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act [and no] Republican presidential candidate has gotten more than 15 percent of the black vote since."
- Blacks and Democratic Party, FactCheck.org, April 18, 2008