Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Theses Department of History Spring 5-10-2014 Construction of the Racist Republican Barbara M. Lane Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses Recommended Citation Lane, Barbara M., "Construction of the Racist Republican." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses/81 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CONSTRUCTION OF THE RACIST REPUBLICAN by BARBARA LANE Under the Direction of John McMillian Abstract Minorities have gained more civil rights with the cooperation of both major political parties in the United States, yet the actions of the Republican Party are often conflated with racism. This is partially the result of clashes in ideological visions, which explain the different political positions of partisans. However, during his 1980 run for the White House, a concerted effort was made to tie Ronald Reagan to racism, as he was accused of pandering to white Southerners. Therefore, this thesis also focuses on “Southern strategies” used by both the Republican and Democratic parties to exploit race, which have spilled into the new millennium. INDEX WORDS: Racist Republican, Southern Strategy,