Republicans and Race: The GOP’s Frayed Relationship with African Americans, 1945–1974 by Timothy N. Thurber (review)

Thurber’s Republicans and Race shows how the “Party of Lincoln” became the party not only of Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms but also Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon—that is, the party of Civil Rights Acts and Affirmative Action, and of Little Rock and busing. Subtle and encyclopedic, the book steeps readers in this period of great change, from Adolf Hitler’s surrender to President Nixon’s resignation, as the Civil Rights Revolution transformed America.

Thurber, who wrote an earlier book about Hubert H. Humphrey, notes that “nothing separates the American electorate more than race” (2); Republicans consistently receive less than 15 percent of the African-American vote.¹ Given that Republicans have viewed black votes as “unwinnable” and given that the gop has been the political home to southern resisters like Senators Thurmond and Helms, most historians—let alone pundits—believe that the Republican Party consistently opposed civil-rights legislation. They explain this break from its historic role as the party that fought southern racism by emphasizing the Republican turn to the right in 1964.

Thurber refutes both assumptions. Although Republicans “often ignored racial injustice,” they also “sometimes backed reforms that undermined white supremacy, particularly in the South” (375). Challenging the conventional wisdom directly, he writes, “The United States was a more egalitarian society when Richard Nixon left office than at the end of World War II. The GOP had helped make that possible” (375). Thurber devotes fourteen clear, well-organized chapters—along with an introduction and an epilogue—taking the story to the racially polarized results of 2012, to explain this seeming ambiguity in the Republican platform.

Exploring Congressional dynamics, most vividly when analyzing the Eisenhower and Nixon presidencies, Thurber creates a multidimensional portrait that shows when the gop cooperated and when it resisted the civil-rights movement’s demands. He makes it clear that, in a democracy like America’s, the kind of revolutionary changes that took place required bipartisan support. The book shows the remarkable, often overlooked, continuity that occurred from president to president, even when the opposition party took control. The portrait that emerges is a society rocked by great, frequently violent, turmoil, yet able to find its ballast through its democratic procedures. Moreover, Thurber acknowledges that Republican objections to certain ideas were rooted in an individualistic worldview that saw America “as a fluid, open society that rewarded hard work.” Believing that “[s]uccess came largely through personal initiative,” Republicans were loath to make government too big or domineering (375).

This straightforward narrative history derives from considerable primary research in presidential and congressional archives. The book could have benefited, however, from an interdisciplinary approach. Popular culture, social structures, economics, technology, and ideology all affected the Republican Party’s relationship to African Americans. More sensitivity to changes in those arenas, along with a deeper look at Republican ideology, would have helped Thurber to provide a fuller explanation of why Republicans resisted sometimes and why they cooperated sometimes, beyond simply reacting to personalities, pressures, or political polls. Nonetheless, this is an illuminating book about an important topic.