"Overwhelming Evidence Showing the Central Role Racial Politics Played in the Republican Party's Rise to Power After the Civil Rights Movement"

"Buoyed by the surprising strength of Workman's campaign, South Carolina’s junior senator, Strom Thurmond, abandoned the Democratic Party in 1964 and joined the Republicans. Sixteen years earlier, Thurmond had left the Democrats briefly to run for president as a 'Dixiecrat' on the States’ Rights ticket. His surprise announcement in 1964 signaled the start of what political scientists call the 'great white switch.'"

Sid Bedingfield at The Conversation discusses the rise of the Republican Party in 1960s South Carolina.