Why were the Dixiecrats formed?

Answer 1

In 1948 the Democrats in two Southern States did not like, Harry Truman, the Democrat Nominee for President. There were still people alive who remembered the Horror of the Reconstruction under the Republicans. As a result they formed their own political party called the Dixiecrats. It consisted of Democrats who were closer to Republicans in philosophy than they were to other Democrats.

Answer 2

The Dixiecrats were formed as a protest party for the 1948 presidential election. Due to the National Democratic Party's embrace of a civil rights plank on the party platform, delegates from Mississippi and Alabama stormed out of the convention in protest. They then held their own convention in Birmingham, Alabama, to nominate Gov. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for president for the States' Rights Democratic Party, commonly known as the Dixiecrats (Gov. Fielding Wright of Mississippi was chosen as his running mate).

Their ultimate aim was to carry enough Southern states and thus deny either Harry Truman (Dem) or Thomas Dewey (Rep) enough electoral college votes to win the election. This would force the election into the House of Representatives, where the Dixiecrats would hope to get a concession from either candidate to drop their civil rights policies in exchange for Southern votes.

As history will tell, however, that was not the case. Thurmond and Wright only carried 4 states - South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - for 39 electoral votes (1 elector from Tennessee cast a vote for Thurmond). It was nowhere near enough to deny either major candidate the presidency and Truman went on to win the election.

Answer 3

They were upset about Truman supporting civil rights so they became Dixiecrats.