Just like Nixon started the war on drugs, the story that the parties flipped after the Civil Rights Acts of the 60s also has no basis in reality. The evidence usually forwarded is that the solid blue jim crow south voted for Goldwater in 64 and Nixon in 68 and 72. This itself is not true since 7 southern states of Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri and Florida voted for Johnson in 1964. Proponents of this back of the napkin theory also ignore the fact that the 5 southern states that voted for Goldwater in 64 and Nixon in 68 and 72 voted for Carter in 76 and Clinton in 92 and 96. They also ignore the fact that Democrats retained control of governor’s offices and the majority of congressional seats and state legislature seats well into this century.
Many former Jim Crow states like Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana remained under Democrat control until the beginning of the 21st century. Georgia didn’t elect their first Republican governor, since reconstruction, until 2002 before which democrats retained control of both the state senate and house. Mississippi didn’t elect their first Republican governor, since reconstruction, until 1991 and Democrats held majorities in the state house and senate as late as 2011. Alabama elected their first Republican governor in 1987 after George Wallace finished his 4th term as a Democrat governor and Democrats retained control of the state senate and house as late as 2010. Despite being the spokesman for segregation in the 60s, Wallace won over 90% of the black vote. While Louisiana elected their first Republican governor, since reconstruction, in 1980, the governorship has routinely switched between parties even in the present day, and like Mississippi, Republicans didn’t gain control of the state legislature until 2011. Other Southern states like Arkansas and Tennessee also had majority Democrat legislatures up until Obama’s first term in office and still regularly switched between Republican and Democrat governors. Florida state government was a firm democrat stronghold until the 90s and Florida’s transition from a swing state to a red state didn’t happen until recently. The likely cause of the party switch in the early 2000s is today’s culture war not a movement from half a century ago.