Third-Party Poopers: Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrat Party

Dixiecrat is a combination of the words "Dixie" and "Democrat," meaning "racist skeetbag." It was on the Dixiecrat ticket that South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond launched his 1948 third-party campaign for President, with racial segregation, Jim Crow laws and "states' rights" as the main planks in his platform.

Thurmond and many other Southerners split from the Democratic Party when the organization decided to start treating black people like people. Although Thurmond took five states

Tags: Democrats, Harry S. Truman, Strom Thurmond, Third-Party Poopers