1948 States' Rights Democratic Party convention

The 1948 States' Rights Democratic Party convention transformed resistance to Harry S. Truman’s civil-rights program into an organized challenge to the Democratic Party of the United States. In Birmingham, delegates rallied behind Strom Thurmond, endorsed racial segregation, and sought to throw the presidential election into the House of Representatives.

Convention and Candidates

Two days after Truman called a special session of Congress, a hurriedly assembled conference of states’ rights Democrats met in a red-brick auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama. The delegates waved Confederate flags and cheered Alabama’s former governor Frank M. Dixon as he denounced Truman’s civil-rights program. They unanimously chose South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond as their presidential candidate and Mississippi governor Fielding L. Wright as his running mate.

Platform and Electoral Strategy

The convention’s platform called for “the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race.” Its strategy was to deny both Truman and Thomas E. Dewey a majority, which would send the election to the House of Representatives. The campaign thus joined a clear policy demand to a specific electoral aim: the delegates would contest the presidency while trying to prevent either major-party candidate from securing an outright victory.

The Break with Truman

Asked why he was breaking with the Democratic Party now, when Franklin D. Roosevelt had made similar civil-rights promises, Thurmond replied, “But Truman really means it.” His answer located the rupture not simply in the existence of civil-rights commitments, but in his assertion that Truman intended to act on them. The convention gave that opposition a candidate, a platform, and a route into the general election.