Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Phillips, Jason

Committee Member

Barbier, Mary Katherine

Committee Member

Richard Damms

Date of Degree

8-8-2009

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of History

Abstract

In 1952, affluent white suburban citizens of Birmingham, Alabama voted overwhelmingly in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower. This thesis explores and examines why the emergence of a thriving suburban community that voted Republican occurred. This examination used a collection of numerous sources, primary and secondary. Newspapers served as the most important tool for discovering why the new suburbs aligned to Republicanism. The sources describe a suburban area that aligned with the Republican Party due to numerous reasons: race, Eisenhower’s popularity, the Cold War, and economic issues. Due to those reasons, the election of 1952 began to alter their society and political affiliations. The 1952 presidential election results symbolized the political, cultural, and economic acceptance of the Republican Party, which created a Republican political base in the heart of a Democratic state.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15107

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