Southern Conservatives

Southern conservatives comprised a group of middle and upper-class whites, whose influence began to be felt near the end of the first Reconstruction, and who believed that race relations could be peacefully determined. Growing out of the traditional relationships between owners and slaves, conservatives held a basic belief that a multi-race society could be preserved, so long as one race was clearly and naturally superior. The position toward blacks was paternalistic, that is, the belief that blacks should be protected and given employment and rights appropriate for their inferior role in society. In an effort to thwart the forces of radical Republicanism, Southern conservatives wooed the black vote, by pointing out the potential threats to that race by "crackers" and other white supremacists and the ploy of the Republican Party merely to use them for its own political gain. For a time following Reconstruction, the conservative view...