Slide 1Slide 2Truman/Dewey/Thurmond (1948)Eisenhower/Stevenson 1952Slide 5Factors Working vs. a Two-Party SystemTejano Civil Rights MovementSlide 8Slide 9Election of John Tower (1961)Effects of Civil Rights (1964) and Voting Rights Acts (1965)1964: Johnson (D); Goldwater (R)Realignment?Texas Politics in TransitionElectoral realignment: the point at which a new political party supplants the dominant political party, becoming the dominant political force in the nationA critical feature of electoral realignments is the formation of new political coalitionsTruman/Dewey/Thurmond (1948)Eisenhower/Stevenson 1952“Democratic supremacy persists, although its original base has shrunk to minor significance. In 1940, only one Texan in seven was a Negro. White Texans, unlike white Mississippians, have little cause to be obsessed about the Negro. The Lone Star State is concerned about money and how to make it, about oil and sulfur and gas, about cattle and dust storms and irrigation, about cotton and banking and Mexicans.”-V.O. Key, 1949Factors Working vs. a Two-Party System-Once locked in, partisan identification is highly resilient-Power of Texas Democrats in Washington-Difficulty recruiting high-quality candidates-Lack of Republican Party infrastructure-Popular image of RepublicansTejano Civil Rights Movement-League of United Latin American Citizens-The American G.I. ForumFelix LongoriaPlessy’s “separate but equal” ruling held until it was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The court found, in the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren, that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”In Brown v. Board II, decided in 1955, the Court found that the students should be admitted “to the public schools on a racially non-discriminatory basis with all deliberate speed.”Though some border states began to desegregate, the Deep South embarked on a policy of “massive resistance.”“A choice, not an echo.”-Growth of urban/suburban middle class-Anti-communism-Political influence of newcomers to state-Division w/in Democratic Party-Arguments against one-party systemElection of John Tower (1961)Effects of Civil Rights (1964) and Voting Rights Acts (1965)-Alienation of white voters from the Democratic Party-Mobilization of African-American and Hispanic voting strength1964: Johnson (D); Goldwater (R)Realignment?-Shifting image of national Democratic Party and National Republican Party; nationalization of politics-Backlash against liberalism of Democratic Party, growing association of Democrats with minority rights, labor unions-Underlying changes in Texas