Racial Threat and the Construction of the New South

• In Event: Putting White Racial Attitudes in Context

Abstract

As Federal Troops began pulling out of the South in 1877, steps made towards full enfranchisement of black southerners, competitive elections, and representative democracy collapsed. Over the course of the next fifty years, white “Redeemers” established a sub-national authoritarian regime that encompassed nearly the entire formerly Confederate South – reasserting the rule of political and economic white supremacy. Although Redeemers ultimately succeeded in their attempts to establish an authoritarian system of government under the Democratic party-label, the effectiveness of their tactics varied throughout the region. Analyzing a constructed dataset of congressional elections returns from 1870 to 1920, I find evidence that racial threat, properly specified, explains why democracy deteriorated in particular pockets of the South.

Author

• Michael Greenberger, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill