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Personal life 33rd Governor of California 40th President of the United States Legacy  | ||
On August 3, 1980, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan appeared at the Neshoba County Fair to give a speech on states' rights. The location, which was near the site of the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, was, according to critics, evidence of racial bias.
Republican political strategists chose the Neshoba County Fair for the speech as part of an effort to win over rural voters in the Southern United States. The venue, while also offering the traditional elements of rural county fairs, had become recognized for political speechmaking by 1980. [1] The Ronald Reagan 1980 presidential campaign saw breaking president Jimmy Carter's hold on southern states as critical to winning that year's United States presidential election. [1] [2] The 1980 Mississippi state Republican director, Lanny Griffith, explained:
It was not a mistake that Reagan went to the Neshoba County Fair, rather than Jackson. This was sort of heresy, going out in these rural areas ... [but] I know from my standpoint in 1980, we were just obsessed with how you turn around these rural counties and get them started voting with us. [1]
Some members of the Reagan campaign anonymously expressed their discomfort with the choice to a Washington Post reporter: "It would have been like we were coming to Mississippi and winking at the folks here, saying we didn't really mean to be talking to them Urban League folk. ... It would have been the wrong signal." [3]
Reagan was hosted by Republican representative Trent Lott. [3] Approximately 15,000 people attended Reagan's speech. [1] During his speech, Reagan said:
I still believe the answer to any problem lies with the people. I believe in states' rights. I believe in people doing as much as they can for themselves at the community level and at the private level, and I believe we've distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to that federal establishment. [4]
He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them". [5] The use of the phrase "state's rights" was seen by some as a tacit appeal to Southern white voters and a continuation of Richard Nixon's Southern strategy, while others argued it merely reflected his libertarian beliefs in economics. [6] [7]
Coverage of the speech by the media immediately focused on the use of the phrase "states' rights". The headline the next day in The New York Times read, "REAGAN CAMPAIGNS AT MISSISSIPPI FAIR; Nominee Tells Crowd of 10,000 He Is Backing States' Rights." [8] Coverage of Reagan's subsequent campaign stops in the North explicitly linked the location of the speech to the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. On August 6, Douglas Kneeland of the Times wrote, "Adding perhaps to the cautious reception he was given by the Urban League here was Mr. Reagan's appearance Sunday at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., where three young civil rights workers were slain in 1964." [9]
States' rights had for decades been a rallying slogan for racial segregationists, including Strom Thurmond in the 1948 presidential election and George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election, and several press writers interpreted Reagan's use of the phrase according to that tradition. Columnist Bob Herbert of the Times wrote, "Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair," and that it "was understood that when politicians started chirping about 'states' rights' to white people in places like Neshoba County they were saying that when it comes down to you and the blacks, we're with you". [10] Paul Krugman, also of the Times, noted that a Republican national committee member from Mississippi had urged Reagan to speak at the county fair, as it would help win over "George Wallace-inclined voters", and wrote that this was just one of many examples of "Reagan's tacit race-baiting in the historical record." [11]
Eulogizing on Reagan's death, Washington Post columnist William Raspberry noted of the incident:
It was bitter symbolism for black Americans (though surely not just for black Americans). Countless observers have noted that Reagan took the Republican Party from virtual irrelevance to the ascendancy it now enjoys. The essence of that transformation, we shouldn't forget, is the party's successful wooing of the race-exploiting Southern Democrats formerly known as Dixiecrats. And Reagan's Philadelphia appearance was an important bouquet in that courtship. [12]
Others, including the Washington Post editorial page, contended that there was nothing racist about Reagan's use of the phrase "states' rights" in the context of the speech; National Review criticized Jimmy Carter's allegations of racism, calling them "frightful distortions, bordering on outright lies." [13] David Brooks of The New York Times responded to the article by fellow Times columnist Krugman, and called the attention paid to the "states' rights" phrase a "slur" and a "distortion." He wrote that the campaign had been somewhat forced by the county fair organizers who had announced Reagan's appearance, and that the "states' rights" phrase was used in the part of his speech, but that the speech was mostly about inflation and the economy and how it related to schools. Brooks wrote that Reagan had been courting black voters at that time, and he flew to New York City after the speech to deliver an address to the Urban League. [14] In the same article, Brooks does admit, however, that:
You can look back on this history in many ways. It's callous, at least, to use the phrase "states' rights" in any context in Philadelphia. Reagan could have done something wonderful if he'd mentioned civil rights at the fair. He didn't. And it's obviously true that race played a role in the G.O.P.'s ascent.
This caused Herbert to respond a few days later with an op-ed column titled "Righting Reagan's Wrongs?", in which he wrote:
Reagan was the first presidential candidate ever to appear at the fair, and he knew exactly what he was doing when he told that crowd, "I believe in states' rights." Reagan apologists have every right to be ashamed of that appearance by their hero, but they have no right to change the meaning of it, which was unmistakable. Commentators have been trying of late to put this appearance by Reagan into a racially benign context. [10]
On November 4, Election Day, Reagan won the state of Mississippi by a narrow plurality of 11,808 votes, [15] including Neshoba County with a 1,293 vote majority.[ citation needed ]
In subsequent presidential elections, candidates John Glenn and Michael Dukakis both campaigned at the venue. [1] [16]
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A Republican, he previously served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 until 1960.
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. The Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush defeated incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter and incumbent vice president Walter Mondale in a landslide victory.
John Bayard Anderson was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 to 1981. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the Chair of the House Republican Conference from 1969 until 1979. In 1980, he ran an independent campaign for president, receiving 6.6% of the popular vote.
Neshoba County is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,087. Its county seat is Philadelphia. It was named after Nashoba, a Choctaw chief. His name means "wolf" in the Choctaw language.
Philadelphia is a city in and the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,118 at the 2020 census.
A Reagan Democrat is a traditionally Democratic voter in the Northern United States, referring to working class residents who supported Republican presidential candidates Ronald Reagan in the 1980 or the 1984 presidential elections, or George H. W. Bush during the 1988 presidential election. The term Reagan Democrat remains part of the lexicon in American political jargon because of Reagan's continued widespread popularity among a large segment of the electorate.
In American politics, the Southern strategy was a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. As the civil rights movement and dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s visibly deepened existing racial tensions in much of the Southern United States, Republican politicians such as presidential candidate Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater developed strategies that successfully contributed to the political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South who had traditionally supported the Democratic Party. It also helped to push the Republican Party much more to the right relative to the 1950s.
William Hodding Carter III is an American journalist and politician. He was Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the Jimmy Carter administration.
The Neshoba County Fair, also known as Mississippi's Giant House Party, is an annual event of agricultural, political, and social entertainment held a few miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi. The fair was first established in 1889 and is the nation's largest campground fair. The event usually starts at the end of July and lasts a week.
This is the electoral history of Ronald Reagan. Reagan, a Republican, served as the 40th president of the United States (1981–89) and earlier as the 33rd governor of California (1967–75). At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to assume the presidency in the nation's history, until Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017 at the age of 70 years, 220 days. In 1984, Reagan won re-election at the age of 73 years, 274 days, and was the oldest person to win a US presidential election until Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election at the age of 77 years, 349 days.
Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989). A Republican and former actor and governor of California, he energized the conservative movement in the United States from 1964. His basic foreign policy was to equal and surpass the Soviet Union in military strength, and put it on the road to what he called "the ash heap of history". By 1985, he began to co-operate closely with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev–they even became friends–and negotiated large-scale disarmament projects. The Cold War was fading away and suddenly ended as Soviets lost control of Eastern Europe almost overnight in October 1989, nine months after Reagan was replaced in the White House by his vice president George H. W. Bush, who was following Reagan's policies. The Soviet Union itself was dissolved in December 1991. In terms of the Reagan doctrine, he promoted military, financial, and diplomatic support for anti-Communist insurgencies in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and numerous other countries. For the most part, local communist power collapsed when the Soviet Union collapsed.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were elected president and vice president of the United States. They defeated the incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale.
The 1984 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 6, 1984. All fifty states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Florida voters chose 21 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.
The 1984 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place on November 6, 1984. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Mississippi voters chose seven electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.
The 1984 United States presidential election in Alabama took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Alabama voters chose 9 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.
The 1984 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Georgia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.
The 1980 United States presidential election in Ohio took place on November 4, 1980. All 50 states and The District of Columbia were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. State voters chose 25 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1980 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November 4, 1980. All fifty states and The District of Columbia were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. Voters chose six electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1980 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place on November 4, 1980. All fifty states and The District of Columbia were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. Mississippi voters chose seven electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1976 presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter resulted in the election of Jimmy Carter and his running mate Walter Mondale's as president and vice president of the United States, defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford and his running mate Bob Dole. Carter, a Democrat and former governor of Georgia, launched his presidential bid in December 1974, as the Constitution of Georgia barred him from running for a second term as governor. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the declining popularity of President Ford due to his pardon of Nixon, and the severe recession of 1974–75, many Democrats were sure of victory in the 1976 presidential election. As a result, 17 Democrats ran for their party's nomination in 1976. Carter's opponents mocked his candidacy by saying "Jimmy, who?", for his being relatively unknown outside Georgia. In response, Carter began saying "My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president." Carter extensively campaigned in the primaries, and in the end received 39.19% of his party's primary votes.
The other side of the argument was made by those who see Mississippi, which Carter carried by only 14,000 votes in 1976, as the prime example of a Deep South state that is ripe to go Republican.
