Because of the party's segregationist leanings, the South once played a crucial role in assisting Democrats retain and sustain congressional majorities for much of the twentieth century.
Then, in the early 1990s, the so-called "solid South" shifted from Democratic to Republican, fueling the GOP's 1994 House takeover and continuing to assist the party's Senate advances over the past two decades.
Now, the South is set to shift the balance of political power once more, though it's unclear which party will profit.
This is why: According to fresh population figures published by the US Census Bureau on Thursday, ten of America's fifteen fastest-growing major citiesin the last decade have been in the South. ("Big" towns have a population of more than 50,000 people.) In raw political words, the Southern population increase implies more congressional seats. More congressional districts mean not only more voting authority in the House, but also more electoral ballots to be distributed in future presidential elections.
With the Dixiecrat movement of 1948 and the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964, the South started to drift away from national Democratic allegiance in presidential politics. Democratic support among white Southerners waned first at the national level, then at the state and municipal levels much later. However, by the late 1870s, Democrats had retaken control of the majority of Southern states. This era was later referred to as the Restoration Period. From 1890 to 1908, states in the former Confederacy enacted laws and amendments to their state constitutions that essentially barred African Americans, as well as some impoverished whites, from voting. Political power encourages people to adhere to a set of views and is a good way to become more potent in the case of abilities.