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Glite Dictionary
Dixiecrats

Dixiecrats

9.9
A group of Southern politicians who left the Democratic Party in 1948 because they opposed civil rights for Black people
  • proper noun
  • /ˈdɪksɪkræts/
translation icon : Dixiecrats
  • In the 1948 presidential election, the Dixiecrats represented Southern Democrats who were against civil rights reforms.

And for a long time, Democrats, their base was in the South and the Dixiecrats, they were pro Jim Crow.

Examples

  • So you have a four way election, Republicans and Democrats, Dixiecrats and the Progressive Party.

  • The Dixiecrats emerged as a distinct political faction during the mid-twentieth century to resist desegregation.

  • Many members of the Dixiecrats later shifted to the Republican Party as their political beliefs evolved.

Synonyms

States' Rights Democratic Party
vsDixiecrats
9.9

A former US party formed in 1948 by Southern politicians who opposed civil rights and supported states' rights

opposes civil rights policies rather than the candidate's election

Surface Forms

Dixiecrats main

Morphology

Dixiecrats = Dixiecrat (semi-transparent) = Dixie + crat + s

The plural is regular, but the compound 'Dixie' + '-crat' gives only a general sense ('person from Dixie involved in politics'); the specific historical party meaning requires extra knowledge.

Etymology

Dixiecrats comes from joining Dixie, a nickname for the 'American South', and Democrats, the U.S. political party; it named a 1948 group of Southern Democrats who left the party because they opposed civil rights. So, think 'Dixie' + 'Democrats' to remember that Dixiecrats were Southern members who split from the Democrats.