Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
November 5, 1968
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elections in North Carolina |
|---|
The 1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 5, 1968, and was part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Whereas in the Deep South, Black Belt whites had deserted the national Democratic Party in 1948, in North Carolina, where they had historically been an economically liberalizing influence on the state Democratic Party,[1] the white landowners of the Black Belt had stayed exceedingly loyal to the party until after the Voting Rights Act. This allowed North Carolina to be, along with Arkansas, the only state to vote for Democrats in all four presidential elections between 1952 and 1964. Indeed, the state had not voted Republican since anti-Catholic fervor lead it to support Herbert Hoover over Al Smith in 1928; and other than that the state had not voted Republican once in the century since the Reconstruction era election of 1872. Nonetheless, in 1964 Republican Barry Goldwater may have won a small majority of white voters,[b][3] although he was beaten by virtually universal support for incumbent President Lyndon Johnson by a black vote estimated at 175 thousand.
However, with the Voting Rights Act's passage, a reaction set in amongst these, and indeed amongst almost all Southern poor whites outside the unionized coalfields of Appalachia.[4] Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, running in North Carolina under the moniker of the “American Party”, appealed very strongly to most white voters in the eastern half of the state who had become extremely critical of black protesters, student radicals, and rising crime rates.[5]
In early polls it was thought that Wallace would carry the state,[6] but a major swing against him and toward Republican nominee Richard Nixon during October and November saw Nixon win the state, with 39.5 percent of the vote, whilst Wallace's 31.3 percent still pushed Democratic nominee and incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey into third on 29.2 percent. The Alabama segregationist carried almost all of the Piedmont and Outer Banks, and some Black Belt areas where black voter registration was still limited – the very areas that had allowed John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson II to carry North Carolina when other Outer South states went Republican. In these previously loyal regions whites felt President Johnson had moved much too far on civil rights issues, and consequent support for highly segregationist candidates in Democratic primary elections[7] led them naturally to Wallace.[8] Humphrey had very limited support outside of black voters, who were estimated to comprise well over half his total vote in the state,[9] with his share of the white vote totaling less than 20 percent[2] and coming mainly from some traditionally Democratic mountain counties and the university communities of Orange and Durham counties. Among white voters, 48% supported Nixon, 41% supported Wallace, and 12% supported Humphrey.[10][11][12]
Nixon won twelve of the state's electoral votes, while one faithless elector that had been pledged to Nixon voted instead for Wallace. As of the 2020 presidential election[update], this is the last election in which Wayne County and Lenoir County did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate.[13]
| 1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina[14] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Richard Nixon | 627,192 | 39.51% | 12 | |
| American | George Wallace | 496,188 | 31.26% | 1 | |
| Democratic | Hubert Humphrey | 464,113 | 29.24% | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,587,493 | 100.0% | 13 | ||
| Voter turnout | — | ||||
| County[15] | Richard Nixon Republican |
George Wallace American Independent |
Hubert Humphrey Democratic |
Margin | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Alamance | 12,310 | 36.54% | 13,139 | 39.00% | 8,241 | 24.46% | -829 | -2.46% | 33,690 |
| Alexander | 4,379 | 52.03% | 2,203 | 26.18% | 1,834 | 21.79% | 2,176 | 25.85% | 8,416 |
| Alleghany | 1,695 | 45.80% | 904 | 24.43% | 1,102 | 29.78% | 593[c] | 16.02% | 3,701 |
| Anson | 1,474 | 18.39% | 3,571 | 44.56% | 2,969 | 37.05% | -602[d] | -7.51% | 8,014 |
| Ashe | 4,894 | 53.15% | 888 | 9.64% | 3,426 | 37.21% | 1,468[c] | 15.94% | 9,208 |
| Avery | 3,197 | 70.76% | 690 | 15.27% | 631 | 13.97% | 2,507 | 55.49% | 4,518 |
| Beaufort | 2,669 | 23.03% | 5,686 | 49.07% | 3,232 | 27.89% | -2,454[d] | -21.18% | 11,587 |
| Bertie | 811 | 11.38% | 3,108 | 43.61% | 3,207 | 45.00% | 99[d] | 1.39% | 7,126 |
| Bladen | 1,746 | 20.79% | 3,897 | 46.41% | 2,754 | 32.80% | -1,143[d] | -13.61% | 8,397 |
| Brunswick | 2,404 | 27.52% | 3,358 | 38.45% | 2,972 | 34.03% | -386[d] | -4.42% | 8,734 |
| Buncombe | 21,031 | 44.23% | 11,889 | 25.01% | 14,624 | 30.76% | 6,407[c] | 13.47% | 47,544 |
| Burke | 11,068 | 48.84% | 5,892 | 26.00% | 5,704 | 25.17% | 5,176 | 22.84% | 22,664 |
| Cabarrus | 13,226 | 52.35% | 6,538 | 25.88% | 5,501 | 21.77% | 6,688 | 26.47% | 25,265 |
| Caldwell | 10,433 | 51.46% | 5,095 | 25.13% | 4,746 | 23.41% | 5,338 | 26.33% | 20,274 |
| Camden | 180 | 9.06% | 1,100 | 55.36% | 707 | 35.58% | -393[d] | -19.78% | 1,987 |
| Carteret | 4,593 | 40.23% | 3,061 | 26.81% | 3,762 | 32.95% | 831[c] | 7.28% | 11,416 |
| Caswell | 1,036 | 17.20% | 2,851 | 47.33% | 2,137 | 35.47% | -714[d] | -11.86% | 6,024 |
| Catawba | 18,393 | 56.33% | 7,285 | 22.31% | 6,974 | 21.36% | 11,108 | 34.02% | 32,652 |
| Chatham | 3,845 | 36.22% | 3,239 | 30.51% | 3,532 | 33.27% | 313[c] | 2.95% | 10,616 |
| Cherokee | 3,768 | 53.18% | 915 | 12.91% | 2,402 | 33.90% | 1,366[c] | 19.28% | 7,085 |
| Chowan | 798 | 21.60% | 1,696 | 45.90% | 1,201 | 32.50% | -495[d] | -13.40% | 3,695 |
| Clay | 1,390 | 54.94% | 293 | 11.58% | 847 | 33.48% | 543[c] | 21.46% | 2,530 |
| Cleveland | 7,298 | 32.28% | 9,649 | 42.68% | 5,661 | 25.04% | -2,351 | -10.40% | 22,608 |
| Columbus | 3,881 | 26.19% | 6,693 | 45.17% | 4,243 | 28.64% | -2,450[d] | -16.53% | 14,817 |
| Craven | 2,991 | 21.77% | 6,509 | 47.37% | 4,240 | 30.86% | -2,269[d] | -16.51% | 13,740 |
| Cumberland | 9,143 | 31.95% | 9,539 | 33.33% | 9,938 | 34.72% | 399[d] | 1.39% | 28,620 |
| Currituck | 363 | 14.11% | 1,471 | 57.19% | 738 | 28.69% | -733[d] | -28.50% | 2,572 |
| Dare | 1,035 | 40.13% | 844 | 32.73% | 700 | 27.14% | 191 | 7.40% | 2,579 |
| Davidson | 16,678 | 46.57% | 11,544 | 32.23% | 7,594 | 21.20% | 5,134 | 14.34% | 35,816 |
| Davie | 3,866 | 49.04% | 2,515 | 31.90% | 1,502 | 19.05% | 1,351 | 17.14% | 7,883 |
| Duplin | 2,724 | 22.22% | 6,082 | 49.62% | 3,451 | 28.16% | -2,631[d] | -21.46% | 12,257 |
| Durham | 12,705 | 29.68% | 13,542 | 31.63% | 16,563 | 38.69% | 3,021[d] | 7.06% | 42,810 |
| Edgecombe | 3,198 | 22.36% | 5,861 | 40.98% | 5,243 | 36.66% | -618[d] | -4.32% | 14,302 |
| Forsyth | 31,623 | 46.79% | 15,681 | 23.20% | 20,281 | 30.01% | 11,342[c] | 16.79% | 67,585 |
| Franklin | 1,375 | 14.10% | 5,525 | 56.64% | 2,855 | 29.27% | -2,670[d] | -27.37% | 9,755 |
| Gaston | 18,741 | 43.77% | 13,973 | 32.64% | 10,100 | 23.59% | 4,768 | 11.13% | 42,814 |
| Gates | 406 | 14.58% | 1,227 | 44.07% | 1,151 | 41.34% | -76[d] | -2.73% | 2,784 |
| Graham | 1,570 | 52.44% | 363 | 12.12% | 1,061 | 35.44% | 509[c] | 17.00% | 2,994 |
| Granville | 1,837 | 21.50% | 4,071 | 47.64% | 2,638 | 30.87% | -1,433[d] | -16.77% | 8,546 |
| Greene | 650 | 12.71% | 2,906 | 56.80% | 1,560 | 30.49% | -1,346[d] | -26.31% | 5,116 |
| Guilford | 38,996 | 46.23% | 19,751 | 23.42% | 25,604 | 30.35% | 13,392[c] | 15.88% | 84,351 |
| Halifax | 3,148 | 20.72% | 7,116 | 46.84% | 4,927 | 32.43% | -2,189[d] | -14.41% | 15,191 |
| Harnett | 5,184 | 32.97% | 6,531 | 41.54% | 4,007 | 25.49% | -1,347 | -8.57% | 15,722 |
| Haywood | 6,205 | 39.26% | 3,898 | 24.66% | 5,703 | 36.08% | 502[c] | 3.18% | 15,806 |
| Henderson | 9,334 | 57.45% | 3,861 | 23.76% | 3,053 | 18.79% | 5,473 | 33.69% | 16,248 |
| Hertford | 1,125 | 17.04% | 2,203 | 33.36% | 3,275 | 49.60% | 1,072[d] | 16.24% | 6,603 |
| Hoke | 812 | 17.88% | 1,545 | 34.02% | 2,185 | 48.11% | 640[d] | 14.09% | 4,542 |
| Hyde | 401 | 20.02% | 833 | 41.59% | 769 | 38.39% | -64[d] | -3.20% | 2,003 |
| Iredell | 10,557 | 43.17% | 9,021 | 36.89% | 4,878 | 19.95% | 1,536 | 6.28% | 24,456 |
| Jackson | 3,747 | 48.14% | 1,080 | 13.88% | 2,956 | 37.98% | 791[c] | 10.16% | 7,783 |
| Johnston | 6,764 | 33.05% | 9,212 | 45.01% | 4,492 | 21.95% | -2,448 | -11.96% | 20,468 |
| Jones | 361 | 10.72% | 1,780 | 52.88% | 1,225 | 36.39% | -555[d] | -16.49% | 3,366 |
| Lee | 2,586 | 29.32% | 3,711 | 42.07% | 2,524 | 28.61% | -1,125 | -12.75% | 8,821 |
| Lenoir | 3,844 | 24.43% | 8,036 | 51.08% | 3,853 | 24.49% | -4,183[d] | -26.59% | 15,733 |
| Lincoln | 6,188 | 46.20% | 3,161 | 23.60% | 4,044 | 30.19% | 2,144[c] | 16.01% | 13,393 |
| Macon | 3,295 | 50.48% | 1,162 | 17.80% | 2,070 | 31.71% | 1,225[c] | 18.77% | 6,527 |
| Madison | 3,130 | 49.18% | 1,034 | 16.25% | 2,201 | 34.58% | 929[c] | 14.60% | 6,365 |
| Martin | 1,221 | 14.97% | 3,818 | 46.81% | 3,118 | 38.22% | -700[d] | -8.59% | 8,157 |
| McDowell | 4,740 | 46.01% | 3,018 | 29.30% | 2,543 | 24.69% | 1,722 | 16.71% | 10,301 |
| Mecklenburg | 56,325 | 52.40% | 20,070 | 18.67% | 31,102 | 28.93% | 25,223[c] | 23.47% | 107,497 |
| Mitchell | 3,778 | 72.65% | 603 | 11.60% | 819 | 15.75% | 2,959[c] | 56.90% | 5,200 |
| Montgomery | 3,070 | 39.67% | 2,259 | 29.19% | 2,410 | 31.14% | 660[c] | 8.53% | 7,739 |
| Moore | 5,322 | 43.74% | 3,263 | 26.82% | 3,583 | 29.45% | 1,739[c] | 14.29% | 12,168 |
| Nash | 4,602 | 24.08% | 9,230 | 48.29% | 5,283 | 27.64% | -3,947[d] | -20.65% | 19,115 |
| New Hanover | 10,020 | 37.03% | 9,291 | 34.33% | 7,750 | 28.64% | 729 | 2.70% | 27,061 |
| Northampton | 860 | 10.86% | 2,986 | 37.71% | 4,072 | 51.43% | 1,086[d] | 13.72% | 7,918 |
| Onslow | 3,444 | 28.08% | 5,542 | 45.18% | 3,281 | 26.75% | -2,098 | -17.10% | 12,267 |
| Orange | 6,097 | 33.30% | 3,845 | 21.00% | 8,366 | 45.70% | -2,269[c] | -12.40% | 18,308 |
| Pamlico | 745 | 21.46% | 1,447 | 41.68% | 1,280 | 36.87% | -167[d] | -4.81% | 3,472 |
| Pasquotank | 1,430 | 18.84% | 3,597 | 47.39% | 2,564 | 33.78% | -1,033[d] | -13.61% | 7,591 |
| Pender | 1,007 | 17.76% | 2,720 | 47.98% | 1,942 | 34.26% | -778[d] | -13.72% | 5,669 |
| Perquimans | 468 | 15.37% | 1,554 | 51.03% | 1,023 | 33.60% | -531[d] | -17.43% | 3,045 |
| Person | 2,138 | 24.17% | 4,065 | 45.95% | 2,644 | 29.89% | -1,421[d] | -16.06% | 8,847 |
| Pitt | 5,745 | 25.41% | 9,167 | 40.55% | 7,696 | 34.04% | -1,471[d] | -6.51% | 22,608 |
| Polk | 2,550 | 45.89% | 1,484 | 26.71% | 1,523 | 27.41% | 1,027[c] | 18.48% | 5,557 |
| Randolph | 13,450 | 52.35% | 6,892 | 26.82% | 5,351 | 20.83% | 6,558 | 25.53% | 25,693 |
| Richmond | 2,865 | 22.78% | 5,457 | 43.38% | 4,257 | 33.84% | -1,200[d] | -9.54% | 12,579 |
| Robeson | 4,526 | 23.55% | 6,441 | 33.52% | 8,248 | 42.92% | 1,807[d] | 9.40% | 19,215 |
| Rockingham | 8,095 | 33.46% | 9,324 | 38.54% | 6,774 | 28.00% | -1,229 | -5.08% | 24,193 |
| Rowan | 15,207 | 46.79% | 9,220 | 28.37% | 8,074 | 24.84% | 5,987 | 18.42% | 32,501 |
| Rutherford | 7,785 | 46.11% | 4,476 | 26.51% | 4,622 | 27.38% | 3,163[c] | 18.73% | 16,883 |
| Sampson | 6,597 | 41.44% | 4,527 | 28.43% | 4,797 | 30.13% | 1,800[c] | 11.31% | 15,921 |
| Scotland | 1,717 | 28.69% | 2,016 | 33.68% | 2,252 | 37.63% | 236[d] | 3.95% | 5,985 |
| Stanly | 9,428 | 51.43% | 4,706 | 25.67% | 4,199 | 22.90% | 4,722 | 25.76% | 18,333 |
| Stokes | 4,781 | 45.25% | 3,410 | 32.28% | 2,374 | 22.47% | 1,371 | 12.97% | 10,565 |
| Surry | 9,638 | 51.19% | 4,103 | 21.79% | 5,088 | 27.02% | 4,550[c] | 24.17% | 18,829 |
| Swain | 1,494 | 45.86% | 537 | 16.48% | 1,227 | 37.66% | 267[c] | 8.20% | 3,258 |
| Transylvania | 4,033 | 46.85% | 2,365 | 27.47% | 2,210 | 25.67% | 1,668 | 19.38% | 8,608 |
| Tyrrell | 291 | 22.61% | 415 | 32.25% | 581 | 45.14% | 166[d] | 12.89% | 1,287 |
| Union | 5,290 | 38.67% | 4,761 | 34.80% | 3,630 | 26.53% | 529 | 3.87% | 13,681 |
| Vance | 2,252 | 19.84% | 5,244 | 46.21% | 3,852 | 33.94% | -1,392[d] | -12.27% | 11,348 |
| Wake | 28,928 | 43.08% | 17,250 | 25.69% | 20,979 | 31.24% | 7,949[c] | 11.84% | 67,157 |
| Warren | 796 | 14.79% | 2,294 | 42.62% | 2,293 | 42.60% | -1[d] | -0.02% | 5,383 |
| Washington | 1,016 | 21.26% | 1,866 | 39.04% | 1,898 | 39.71% | 32[d] | 0.67% | 4,780 |
| Watauga | 5,081 | 55.88% | 1,060 | 11.66% | 2,952 | 32.46% | 2,129[c] | 23.42% | 9,093 |
| Wayne | 5,678 | 28.79% | 8,709 | 44.15% | 5,338 | 27.06% | -3,031 | -15.36% | 19,725 |
| Wilkes | 11,195 | 60.29% | 2,876 | 15.49% | 4,497 | 24.22% | 6,698[c] | 36.07% | 18,568 |
| Wilson | 4,053 | 25.13% | 7,903 | 49.00% | 4,173 | 25.87% | -3,730[d] | -23.13% | 16,129 |
| Yadkin | 5,885 | 60.51% | 2,397 | 24.65% | 1,443 | 14.84% | 3,488 | 35.86% | 9,725 |
| Yancey | 2,448 | 45.21% | 752 | 13.89% | 2,215 | 40.90% | 233[c] | 4.31% | 5,415 |
| Totals | 627,192 | 39.51% | 496,188 | 31.26% | 464,113 | 29.24% | 131,004 | 8.25% | 1,587,493 |
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The 1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 5, 1968, and was part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Whereas in the Deep South, Black Belt whites had deserted the national Democratic Party in 1948, in North Carolina, where they had historically been an economically liberalizing influence on the state Democratic Party, the white landowners of the Black Belt had stayed exceedingly loyal to the party until after the Voting Rights Act. This allowed North Carolina to be, along with Arkansas, the only state to vote for Democrats in all four presidential elections between 1952 and 1964. Indeed, the state had not voted Republican since anti-Catholic fervor lead it to support Herbert Hoover over Al Smith in 1928; and other than that the state had not voted Republican once in the century since the Reconstruction era election of 1872. Nonetheless, in 1964 Republican Barry Goldwater may have won a small majority of white voters, although he was beaten by virtually universal support for incumbent President Lyndon Johnson by a black vote estimated at 175 thousand. However, with the Voting Rights Act's passage, a reaction set in amongst these, and indeed amongst almost all Southern poor whites outside the unionized coalfields of Appalachia. Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, running in North Carolina under the moniker of the “American Party”, appealed very strongly to most white voters in the eastern half of the state who had become extremely critical of black protesters, student radicals, and rising crime rates. In early polls it was thought that Wallace would carry the state, but a major swing against him and toward Republican nominee Richard Nixon during October and November saw Nixon win the state, with 39.5 percent of the vote, whilst Wallace's 31.3 percent still pushed Democratic nominee and incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey into third on 29.2 percent. The Alabama segregationist carried almost all of the Piedmont and Outer Banks, and some Black Belt areas where black voter registration was still limited – the very areas that had allowed John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson II to carry North Carolina when other Outer South states went Republican. In these previously loyal regions whites felt President Johnson had moved much too far on civil rights issues, and consequent support for highly segregationist candidates in Democratic primary elections led them naturally to Wallace. Humphrey had very limited support outside of black voters, who were estimated to comprise well over half his total vote in the state, with his share of the white vote totaling less than 20 percent and coming mainly from some traditionally Democratic mountain counties and the university communities of Orange and Durham counties. Among white voters, 48% supported Nixon, 41% supported Wallace, and 12% supported Humphrey. Nixon won twelve of the state's electoral votes, while one faithless elector that had been pledged to Nixon voted instead for Wallace. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Wayne County and Lenoir County did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate.
The 1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. For six decades up to 1950, South Carolina was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of Blacks and the complete absence of other support bases, as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession. Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population. South Carolina was the only state to swing more Democratic compared to 1964, largely due to Wallace's presence on the ballot. Among white voters, 48% supported Nixon, 41% supported Wallace, and 12% supported Humphrey. South Carolina was the only Deep South state not to support Wallace in this election. It also began a near-perfect streak of voting the same way as North Carolina, with the two states only diverging in 2008.
The 2016 United States presidential election in North Carolina was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. North Carolina voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. North Carolina had 15 electoral votes in the Electoral College. Trump won the state with 49.83% of the vote, a small decrease from Mitt Romney's vote percentage in 2012. However, he won by a margin of 3.66%, an increase of 1.62% compared to Romney's margin in 2012. In contrast, Clinton obtained 46.17% of the vote, a decrease of over 2% in 2012 when Obama won 48.35% of the vote. Although both candidates saw decreases in vote share compared to 2012, Trump and Clinton both obtained more votes than the previous election's candidates due to a higher voter turnout in this election. Trump flipped seven counties to the Republican column and was the first Republican to win Robeson, Richmond, and Gates counties since Richard Nixon in 1972. Clinton flipped just one county to the Democratic column, Watauga County, home to Boone. Trump became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Watauga County since James A. Garfield in 1880, as well as the first to do so without carrying Bumcombe or Forsyth counties since Calvin Coolidge in 1924, the first to do so without carrying Wake County since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, and the first to do so without carrying Pitt or Wilson counties since Richard Nixon in 1968. It was also the first time since 1980 that North Carolina voted more Democratic than Ohio.
The 1948 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 2, 1948, as part of the 1948 United States presidential election. North Carolina voters chose 14 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. As a former Confederate state, North Carolina had a history of Jim Crow laws, disfranchisement of its African-American population and dominance of the Democratic Party in state politics. However, unlike the Deep South, the Republican Party had sufficient historic Unionist white support from the mountains and northwestern Piedmont to gain one-third of the statewide vote total in most general elections, where turnout was higher than elsewhere in the former Confederacy due substantially to the state's early abolition of the poll tax in 1920. Like Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma, the relative strength of Republican opposition meant that North Carolina did not have statewide white primaries, although certain counties did use the white primary. Consequently, local response to the landmark 1944 court case of Smith v. Allwright was generally calm. Nevertheless, the state was highly dissatisfied with the influence of blacks and labor unions on the national Democratic Party, and was initially satisfied when liberal Vice-president Henry A. Wallace was replaced on the Democratic ticket in 1944. However, by the beginning of 1946 most white North Carolinians were disapproving of President Truman, primarily because he appointed the first black federal judge and made overtures – though symbolic – toward civil rights. When Truman actually developed a proposal for black civil rights titled To Secure These Rights, however, North Carolina was the only Southern state where there was relatively little overt anger, and the state provided the only three votes from the former Confederacy for Truman as Democratic nominee during the party's 1948 National Convention. Combined with the persistent local Republican threat from mountain Unionist descendants, this meant that there was never any question of the state Democratic Party supporting South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond. Thurmond won 9% of white voters.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Madam C.J. Walker