The issue of racial segregation caused a rift in the Democratic Party of the 1940s to 1960s, allowing for the establishment of a more conservative sect of the Democratic Party primarily in the South who became known as Dixiecrats.
The Dixiecrats were a group of conservative Democrats from the Southern states who were opposed to the national Democratic Party's stance on civil rights and racial integration. They were particularly opposed to President Harry S. Truman's civil rights proposals, which included the desegregation of the armed forces and a federal anti-lynching law. In 1948, the Dixiecrats held a convention in Birmingham, Alabama, where they nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond as their presidential candidate. They ran on a platform that called for states' rights and segregation, and they won four states in the 1948 election.
After the 1948 election, many Dixiecrats returned to the Democratic Party, but some joined the Republican Party, which was seen as more supportive of segregation at the time. The Dixiecrats' opposition to civil rights and racial integration helped to further polarize the issue of race in American politics, and it contributed to the realignment of the political parties in the South. Today, the term "Dixiecrat" is often used to refer to conservative Democrats from the South who opposed civil rights and racial integration.