Dixiecrat Campaign

Twenty years before many of the Southern Democrats switched to the Republican party over civil rights, there was the 1944 presidential election. Some of the pro-segregationist Democrats tried to unite behind Virginian Harry Byrd even though Byrd himself never formally sought to become his party's candidate. This campaign ad ran in the Columbia, SC newspaper the day before the election. Systemic racism/elitism are still with us and the echoes of this rhetoric can still be heard in current political conversations.

The State - November 6, 1944