James Eastland: the shadow of Southern Democrats, 1928-1966

PhD ceremony: Mr. M. Zwiers, 16.15 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: James Eastland: the shadow of Southern Democrats, 1928-1966

Promotor(s): prof. D.F.J. Bosscher

Faculty: Arts

Democrats dominated politics in the United States South during most of the twentieth century. The southern branch of the Democratic Party consisted primarily of conservative segregationists, whose political ideology often clashed with the national party line. Their position became more precarious after World War II, in particular when Democratic presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson – under pressure from civil rights activists – supported legislation to dismantle the system of Jim Crow.

In his dissertation, Maarten Zwiers analyzes the remarkable interaction between southern Democrats and the national Democratic Party, from the New Deal until the enactment of the major civil rights laws in the mid-1960s. Although Kennedy and especially Johnson gave higher priority to civil rights, their party attempted to keep southern Democrats on board as long as possible. The Democratic Party therefore pursued a middle course during the 1950s, which had to satisfy both the black electorate and white southerners. The reciprocity between national Democrats and southern Democrats produced few positive results for African Americans, however, while it enabled Democratic politicians from the South to expand their seniority and power in Congress. These developments had significant consequences for the civil rights movement, also because southern Republicans largely ignored the growing group of black voters and focused on disgruntled southern whites instead.

U.S. Senator James Eastland of Mississippi is the main character in Zwiers’s dissertation. Eastland served in Congress from 1941 and 1978 and remained a Democrat until his retirement. He was a powerful and influential politician, but until now, historians have devoted relatively little attention to him. This dissertation introduces new primary source material to construct a nuanced perspective on the reactionary senator who was known as the “Godfather of Mississippi politics.” Zwiers uses Eastland’s political career as a framework to explain why it took so long before the U.S. South turned into a Republican stronghold.

Maarten Zwiers (Hoogeveen, 1979) studied History and American Studies at the University of Groningen and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. He also did coursework at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Zwiers conducted his research at the Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG). He is currently a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Groningen.