Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
Most notably, Strom Thurmond, the longtime South Carolina Senator, ran
for POTUS as a Southern, Democratic Dixiecrat, going on to say that,
“all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot
force the Negro into our homes, into our schools, our churches and our
places of recreation and amusement.'' While the Democratic Party of
Lyndon B. Johnson was marching forward toward racial equality,
old-school Southern Democrats, including Strom Thurmond, often deserted
ship and stepped into the welcoming arms of the GOP.
It's more of a slide of progressives moving from the GOP to the Dems and Conservatives moving to the GOP as both became more progressive and conservative respectively.
@9BP45QS8mos8MO
“Lyndon B. Johnson was marching forward toward racial equality,”
“These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again." - Lyndon Baines Johnson
