Reagan’s states’ rights rhetoric signaled racial backlash

Evidence

Reagan’s invocation of states’ rights in the bowels of the South called up a complex racial history where big government was aligned with demands for racial equality that threatened “the southern way of life,” and implicitly harkened back to the Dixiecrat Revolt of 1948. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 286

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the value gap — political dog-whistles about government preserve the premise that demands for racial equality threaten white interests. — connects to: White backlash against the Civil Rights Act delivered the South to the Republican Party — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 519; 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 (+2 more)