Georgia Democrats, the Civil Rights Movement, and Shaping of New South

“Tim Boyd has significantly reassessed the nature of southern politics in post–World War II America in this magnificent work. This is a first-rate history of Georgia politics in the modern era.”—Gregory Schneider, author of The precipitous fall of the Democratic Party in southern politics during the latter half of the twentieth century has sparked a rich scholarly debate. Many theories have been put forward to explain the sea change that swept Democrats out of office and replaced them with a new Republican order. In this timely volume, Tim Boyd challenges one of the most prominent explanations for this shift: the “white backlash” theory. Taking the political experience in Georgia as a case study, he makes a compelling argument that New South politics formed out of the factional differences within the state Democratic Party and not simply as a result of white reactions to the civil rights movement. Boyd deftly shows how Georgia Democrats forged a successful (if morally problematic) response to the civil rights movement, allowing them to remain in power until internal divisions eventually weakened the party. The result is a study that recognizes the myriad forces southern leaders faced as the Jim Crow South gave way to new political realities and greatly enhances our understanding of southern politics today.