Reagan’s backlash rhetoric repudiated civil rights through coded attacks

Evidence

Reagan characterized black welfare recipients as “welfare queens” and black men as “strapping young bucks.” He invoked “states’ rights” at a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Mississippi— site of the kidnapping and murder of the three civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964. These were repudiations of civil rights and reminders to black voters of their powerlessness. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 211

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the discussion of the right-wing backlash in earlier chapters on racial reaction and the Reagan era. — connects to: Reagan opened his 1980 campaign at the Mississippi Klan-murder site invoking states’ rights — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 150; A Black paper likened Reagan’s 1966 record to Wallace’s racism — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 147; Reagan used racially coded language that racists understood without spelling out — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 148 (+1 more)