When the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed through Congress in July, a majority of Republicans fittingly voted for the act as the Democratic party had historically held supremacy in the Deep South. When Presidential candidate for the Republican party, Barry Goldwater publicly came out against the bill as a “usurpation of states’ rights,” and an abrupt ideological changeover of the Democratic and Republican parties began. (1) Alabama Governor George Wallace had already laid the groundwork for this type of rhetoric at his 1963 gubernatorial acceptance speech: the lowly yet unforgettable “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech given from “The Cradle of the Confederacy” to argue the state’s independence over federal regulations.(2)
Ronald Reagan, then spokesperson for General Electric, issued a televised speech on October 27, 1964 as a dismissal of President Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms and on behalf of Goldwater’s political campaign. He asked the public "if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers." (3) Again, the seeds of conservatism are spread. Four years later, George Wallace carry's out a Presidential campaign against Nixon but essential they are running on the same platform. By this time, a complete philosophical political party conversion has occurred, never to go back from where it came.
Courtesy of You Tube
An excerpt from the "A Time for Choosing" Speech from October 24, 1964
(1) Taylor Branch. The King Years (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013) pg. 90
(2) Madison Underwood. "Read George Wallace's full 1963 inauguration speech," Alabama Media Group, January 14, 2013. http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/01/read_george_wallaces_full_1963.html
(3) Robert Griffith and Paula Baker. Major Problems in American History since 1945, (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007), pgs. 213-218.
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