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Early Evidence of Cross-Racial Mobilization: White Candidates and Black Voters in the U.S. South 1940–1970

Chapter 2 examines the origins of cross-racial mobilization in the U.S. South between white/Anglo candidates and black voters. The author examines the 1950 U.S. Senate election in Florida between Claude Pepper and George Smathers, identifying the Smith v. Allwright Supreme Court ruling as a critical juncture leading to rapid deployment of cross-racial mobilization across the South. In particular, Claude Pepper covertly mobilized black Floridians by funding a black-run get-out-the-vote operation. The chapter argues that Pepper’s efforts dramatically increased black political participation. Relying on a candidate-level dataset across the U.S. South from the 1940s to the 1970s, the chapter then shows how cross-racial appeals also increased after the Civil Rights reforms of the mid-1960s, that white candidates from the Black Belt were much slower to adopt cross-racial mobilization tactics, and that white candidates mobilized blacks significantly more in the Peripheral South than in the Deep South. Finally, the chapter shows that increasing black registration likely leads to increased cross-racial mobilization.