# Dixiecrats The Dixiecrats — formally the **States' Rights Democratic Party** — were the segregationist Southern Democrats who bolted the 1948 Democratic National Convention after it adopted a strong civil-rights plank backed by Hubert Humphrey and President Truman's desegregation of the armed forces. Running [[Strom Thurmond]] of South Carolina for president on a platform of white supremacy and "states' rights" against federal civil-rights enforcement, the party carried four Deep South states and 39 electoral votes. The revolt failed to deny Truman reelection and the party dissolved immediately after 1948, with most Dixiecrats returning to the Democratic fold. But its significance is enormous: it was the **first visible crack in the New Deal coalition** of the [[Fifth Party System]] and the opening move in the long [[Southern Strategy]] realignment. Thurmond himself switched to the [[Republican Party]] in 1964 over the Civil Rights Act, personifying the migration of the white South from Democratic to Republican that defined the [[Sixth Party System]]. For this KB the Dixiecrats are the **hinge of the great party switch** — the moment the Solid South's defection from the Democratic Party became electorally visible, decades before it was complete. ## See Also - [[Democratic Party]] — the party they bolted - [[Republican Party]] — where the white South ultimately migrated - [[Southern Strategy]] — the realignment they began - [[Fifth Party System]] · [[Sixth Party System]]