Talk:Ross Barnett

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The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- KenWalker | Talk 02:52, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Ross Barnett, Dixiecrat
Regarding this diff. wants to remove the description of Barnett as a Dixiecrat. But why? It's eminently sourceable, as well as being true. E.g.: Pacifistic Rage also wants to remove this sentence: He was a prominent member of the Dixiecrats, Southern Democrats who supported segregation. But why? It's clearly true, and it's a defining characteristic of Barnett's political life. Why in the world would we not mention it on this page?&mdash; alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 22:15, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Ross Barnett was not a Dixiecrat
Ross Barnett was not a Dixiecrat. Dixiecrats were disbanded the same year they were created. Even Wikipedia here says that, look upDixiecrat. Ross Barnett ran as, and was elected as, a Democrat. Placing (Dixiecrat) next to his party affiliation is a misnomer, designed to distance the Democrat Party from their past, and is dishonest. Your source does not reinforce that Ross Barnett was a Dixiecrat, it is the opinion of the author. I can use a similar source that calls Barnett a Democrat.In the footnote of pg 32 Conscience of a Black Conservative.Pacifistic Rage (talk) 01:23, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * No one is saying that Barnett was not also a Democrat. Both are listed.  Barnett was also a Dixiecrat according to many sources:
 * You're using the word in its narrowest sense as a member of the breakaways in 1948. It is also: A popular name in the USA for a Democrat in a southern state opposed to desegregation. (see A Dictionary of Contemporary World History (3 ed.) (Oxford) (sorry for paywall)) It is commonly and supportably by reliable sources used to refer to any erstwhile southern democrats who supported segregation no matter what their formal party affiliation until well into the 1980s, when they'd all joined the Republican party.  E.g. (same source) A short‐lived Dixiecrat American Independent Party was formed for the 1968 elections, with the Alabama Governor George Wallace as candidate for President. The triumph of desegregation was also marked by the dissolution of the traditional southern wing of the Democratic Party. Where once there had been a ‘solid south’ which was staunchly Democrat, by the 1980s the south was dominated by Republican Senators, Congressmen, and Governors. Consequently, the Dixiecrats belonged to history as well.  You see, The Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary World History supports the usage of "Dixiecrat" in this sense when it says that the Dixiecrats "belonged to history" only after the 1980s, by when most Democrats who supported segregation had become Republicans.  Are you going to argue now that Barnett didn't support segregation?&mdash; alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 02:17, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * You're using the word in its narrowest sense as a member of the breakaways in 1948. It is also: A popular name in the USA for a Democrat in a southern state opposed to desegregation. (see A Dictionary of Contemporary World History (3 ed.) (Oxford) (sorry for paywall)) It is commonly and supportably by reliable sources used to refer to any erstwhile southern democrats who supported segregation no matter what their formal party affiliation until well into the 1980s, when they'd all joined the Republican party.  E.g. (same source) A short‐lived Dixiecrat American Independent Party was formed for the 1968 elections, with the Alabama Governor George Wallace as candidate for President. The triumph of desegregation was also marked by the dissolution of the traditional southern wing of the Democratic Party. Where once there had been a ‘solid south’ which was staunchly Democrat, by the 1980s the south was dominated by Republican Senators, Congressmen, and Governors. Consequently, the Dixiecrats belonged to history as well.  You see, The Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary World History supports the usage of "Dixiecrat" in this sense when it says that the Dixiecrats "belonged to history" only after the 1980s, by when most Democrats who supported segregation had become Republicans.  Are you going to argue now that Barnett didn't support segregation?&mdash; alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 02:17, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Two Reference sections
This article somehow ended up with two reference sections. I'm not sure how to rectify that, exactly, so if someone else with skills wants to give it a go... Gerntrash (talk) 20:31, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Quote needs context

 * Bobby Kennedy is a hypocritical, left-wing beatnik without a beard who carelessly and recklessly distorts the facts.

This quote needs historical context. Hardcore segregationists like Barnett deliberately criticized integrationists as left-wingers, liberals, and communists because they believed that civil rights and equal opportunity for African Americans was a conspiracy by foreign influences to weaken their systemic white supremacy, and the white US hegemony. The Christian Right, particularly the more extreme Southern Baptists, had a large role to play in this perceptual distortion of the goals, methods, and aims of the civil rights movement. Analogously, and much later in time, we saw a similar tactical strategy occur in the US over the last two decades, with the election of Obama, the first black President, being described as a communist or socialist conspiracy by the Christian Right, as well as the Black Lives Matter organization and movement being dismissed as Marxists and rioters intent on disrupting America. It’s the same propaganda, spread out over sixty years. Viriditas (talk) 08:54, 9 June 2022 (UTC)