This dissertation examines the Republicanization of Georgia, 1948-1984, through the lens of three Georgian counties that exemplify the key social and economic divides that permeate the South. Pierce and Hancock are both rural, agricultural counties, with economies and, up until the last five years, populations in a steady decline, but while Pierce County’s citizens are primarily white, Hancock County’s are solidly African American. In comparison, DeKalb County, which contains a portion of the Atlanta metropolitan area, has steadily become more ethnically, racially, and economically diverse with Atlanta’s growth. In 1948, both Pierce and Hancock were part of the Democratic Solid South. Today, in state and national elections, Pierce votes solidly Republican and Hancock solidly Democratic, while for local offices Pierce, like Hancock County, continues to vote Democratic. In DeKalb, just as it was in 1948, neither party can claim a definitive hold on the electorate.
I argue that that race and class are so intertwined in the story of the South’s realignment that the role of each is key to understanding the local voters’ decision to change their political party. In keeping with the timeline of those who criticize the myth of southern exceptionalism, I show how the Republican party emerged in DeKalb County the 1940s as a class-based institution introduced by postwar transplants. Yet, its success was fleeting, especially as race grew more important for both liberals and conservatives as the civil rights movement grew more successful and increasingly challenged the status quo. My study captures the intense confusion as the sands shifted beneath the feet of the Georgia traditional political structure. I examine the choices that the state parties made as they struggled to define their positions and, as importantly, how the electorate reacted to these decisions. And, I show how the conservatism first espoused by Barry Goldwater in 1964 evolved into a political platform acceptable to the economic conservatives in Georgia’s urban centers as well as the white rural areas that were once the most powerful part of the Solid South such as Pierce County. I also illustrate how the Republican party strained to find viable, strong candidates even in areas where voters were the most open to their ideas. In contrast, I show how issues of race, above all else, guided the decisions of Hancock, and I demonstrate how the confusion of the times undermined any hopes of party loyalty during this period of partisan realignment.