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1948 United States presidential election in Alabama

Main article: 1948 United States presidential election

The 1948 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 2, 1948. Alabama voters sent eleven electors to the Electoral College who voted for President and Vice-President. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of (as in most other states) as a slate.

1948 United States presidential election in Alabama
← 1944 November 2, 1948 1952 →
 
Nominee Strom Thurmond Thomas E. Dewey
Party Democratic Republican
Alliance States' Rights Democratic
Home state South Carolina New York
Running mate Fielding L. Wright Earl Warren
Electoral vote 11 0
Popular vote 171,443 40,930
Percentage 79.75% 19.04%
County Results
President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Since the 1890s, Alabama had been effectively a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. Disenfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and a large proportion of poor whites via poll taxes, literacy tests[1] and informal harassment had essentially eliminated opposition parties outside of Unionist Winston County and presidential campaigns in a few nearby northern hill counties. The only competitive statewide elections during this period were thus Democratic Party primaries — limited to white voters until the landmark court case of Smith v. Allwright, following which Alabama introduced the Boswell Amendment — ruled unconstitutional in Davis v. Schnell in 1949,[2] although substantial increases in black voter registration would not occur until after the late 1960s Voting Rights Act.

Unlike other Deep South states, soon after black disenfranchisement Alabama’s remaining white Republicans made rapid efforts to expel blacks from the state Republican Party,[3] and under Oscar D. Street, who ironically was appointed state party boss as part of the pro-Taft “black and tan” faction in 1912,[4] the state GOP would permanently turn “lily-white”, with the last black delegates at any Republican National Convention serving in 1920.[3] However, with two exceptions the Republicans were unable to gain from their hard lily-white policy. The first was when they exceeded forty percent in the 1920 House of Representatives races for the 4th, 7th and 10th congressional districts,[5] and the second was 1928 presidential election when Senator James Thomas Heflin embarked on a nationwide speaking tour, partially funded by the Ku Klux Klan, against Roman Catholic Democratic nominee Al Smith and supported Republican Herbert Hoover,[6] who went on to lose the state that year by only seven thousand votes.

In 1946 Alabama’s one-party Democratic rule was severely challenged not merely by the invalidation of its white primary system, but also by the potential effect on the United States' image abroad (and ability to win the Cold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric of Communism)[7] from the beating and blinding of Isaac Woodard three hours after being discharged from the army. Truman then attempted to launch a Civil Rights bill, involving desegregation of the military. Southern Democrats immediately made such cries as "unconstitutional", "Communist inspired," "a blow to the loyal South and its traditions," "unwarranted and harmful," "not the answer," and "does irreparable harm to interracial relations".[8]

In May of 1948, Alabama’s Democratic presidential elector primary chose electors who were pledged to not vote for incumbent President Truman,[9] and the state Supreme Court ruled that any statute requiring party presidential electors to vote for that party's national nominee was void.[10] Half of Alabama’s delegation then walked out at the party's national convention in Philadelphia because of Truman's endorsement of civil rights for African Americans.[11] This segregationist faction met on July 17, 1948, in Birmingham, nominating South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond as its nominee for president. Mississippi governor Fielding L. Wright was nominated for vice president.

A "Loyalist" group would petition governor "Big Jim" Folsom to allow Truman electors on the ballot alongside the “Democratic” electors pledged to Thurmond, but Senator John Sparkman, fearing popular defeat at the hands of the Dixiecrats and a hostile state legislature, decided against placing Truman electors on the ballot,[12] although a Gallup poll in October showed that about a third of state voters would support Truman if they were able to do so.[a] In other Southern states where Truman was on the ballot,[b] Thurmond was forced to run under the label of the States' Rights Democratic Party.

Polls

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Source Ranking As of
The Montgomery Advertiser[14] Certain I (flip) October 24, 1948
The Miami News[15] Certain I (flip) October 25, 1948
The Charlotte Observer[16] Certain I (flip) October 27, 1948
Mount Vernon Argus[17] Certain I (flip) November 1, 1948
Oakland Tribune[18] Certain I (flip) November 1, 1948

Results

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1948 United States presidential election in Alabama[19]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic/Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond 171,443 79.75% 11
Republican Thomas E. Dewey 40,930 19.04% 0
Progressive Henry A. Wallace 1,522 0.71% 0
Prohibition Claude A. Watson 1,085 0.50% 0
Voter turnout (voting age) 12.5%[20]

Results by individual elector

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General election results[19][21]
Party Pledged to Elector Votes
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Tom Abernathy 171,443
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Ben Bloodworth 171,336
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Tully A. Goodwin 171,284
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Walter C. Givhan 171,279
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Norman W. Harris 171,272
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond John A. Lusk, Jr. 171,272
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Robert B. Albritton 171,264
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Gessner T. McCorvey 171,213
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Edmund Blair 171,212
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Walter F. Miller 171,201
Democratic Party Strom Thurmond Horace C. Walkinson 170,825
Republican Party Thomas E. Dewey O. H. Aycock 40,930
Republican Party Thomas E. Dewey J. A. Downer 40,853
Republican Party Thomas E. Dewey W. H. Gillespie 40,842
Republican Party Thomas E. Dewey V. B. Huff 40,811
Republican Party Thomas E. Dewey Walter J. Kennamer 40,811
Republican Party Thomas E. Dewey L. A. Carroll 40,774
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Jesse L. Dansby 1,522
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Joe M. Goodwin 1,459
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace William A. Upshaw 1,426
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Robert D. Morgan 1,398
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Ralph Hopkins 1,394
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Vivia Thomas 1,385
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Herbert P. McDonald 1,384
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Frank R. McGhee 1,381
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Robert F. Travis, Jr. 1,377
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Allison H. Stanton 1,366
Progressive Party Henry A. Wallace Johanna Newhouse 1,363
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Glenn V. Tingley 1,085
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Eulalia R. Vess 1,085
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson J. B. Lockhart 1,055
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Cora McAdory 1,043
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Jack Moore 1,040
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson L. E. Barton 1,038
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Elizabeth Lewis 1,036
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Ethel M. Durham 1,028
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson H. P. Amos 1,026
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson M. E. Poland 1,015
Prohibition Party Claude A. Watson Noble M. Israelson 1,001
Total votes 214,980

Results by county

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County[22] Strom Thurmond
Dixiecrat 		Thomas E. Dewey
Republican 		Henry A. Wallace
Progressive 		Claude A. Watson
Prohibition 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Autauga 1,160 90.20% 110 8.55% 2 0.16% 14 1.09% 1,050 81.65% 1,286
Baldwin 2,577 74.80% 767 22.26% 67 1.94% 34 0.99% 1,810 52.54% 3,445
Barbour 1,679 93.90% 101 5.65% 2 0.11% 6 0.34% 1,578 88.25% 1,788
Bibb 1,188 88.46% 123 9.16% 8 0.60% 24 1.79% 1,065 79.30% 1,343
Blount 1,768 68.98% 771 30.08% 2 0.08% 22 0.86% 997 38.90% 2,563
Bullock 799 98.76% 10 1.24% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 789 97.52% 809
Butler 1,313 93.19% 91 6.46% 2 0.14% 3 0.21% 1,222 86.73% 1,409
Calhoun 3,236 77.40% 856 20.47% 60 1.44% 29 0.69% 2,380 56.93% 4,181
Chambers 1,520 86.02% 218 12.34% 11 0.62% 18 1.02% 1,302 73.68% 1,767
Cherokee 1,055 81.59% 217 16.78% 3 0.23% 18 1.39% 838 64.81% 1,293
Chilton 1,966 55.09% 1,584 44.38% 5 0.14% 14 0.39% 382 10.71% 3,569
Choctaw 1,440 98.83% 16 1.10% 0 0.00% 1 0.07% 1,424 97.73% 1,457
Clarke 2,059 97.58% 47 2.23% 0 0.00% 4 0.19% 2,012 95.35% 2,110
Clay 1,106 73.64% 387 25.77% 2 0.13% 7 0.47% 719 47.87% 1,502
Cleburne 700 68.16% 317 30.87% 7 0.68% 3 0.29% 383 37.29% 1,027
Coffee 2,031 94.38% 113 5.25% 7 0.33% 1 0.05% 1,918 89.13% 2,152
Colbert 2,609 83.49% 488 15.62% 14 0.45% 14 0.45% 2,121 67.87% 3,125
Conecuh 1,339 95.03% 64 4.54% 2 0.14% 4 0.28% 1,275 90.49% 1,409
Coosa 840 74.73% 275 24.47% 3 0.27% 6 0.53% 565 50.26% 1,124
Covington 2,764 94.14% 154 5.25% 6 0.20% 12 0.41% 2,610 88.89% 2,936
Crenshaw 1,386 96.79% 38 2.65% 1 0.07% 7 0.49% 1,348 94.14% 1,432
Cullman 3,587 66.87% 1,755 32.72% 6 0.11% 16 0.30% 1,832 34.15% 5,364
Dale 1,352 84.39% 230 14.36% 7 0.44% 13 0.81% 1,122 70.03% 1,602
Dallas 2,720 94.77% 132 4.60% 9 0.31% 9 0.31% 2,588 90.17% 2,870
DeKalb 3,573 56.42% 2,743 43.31% 7 0.11% 10 0.16% 830 13.11% 6,333
Elmore 2,387 92.88% 167 6.50% 6 0.23% 10 0.39% 2,220 86.38% 2,570
Escambia 1,681 89.32% 188 9.99% 11 0.58% 2 0.11% 1,493 79.33% 1,882
Etowah 5,895 76.95% 1,615 21.08% 107 1.40% 44 0.57% 4,280 55.87% 7,661
Fayette 1,023 63.07% 580 35.76% 7 0.43% 12 0.74% 443 27.31% 1,622
Franklin 3,226 55.68% 2,555 44.10% 5 0.09% 8 0.14% 671 11.58% 5,794
Geneva 1,823 85.87% 286 13.47% 5 0.24% 9 0.42% 1,537 72.40% 2,123
Greene 621 94.66% 31 4.73% 0 0.00% 4 0.61% 590 89.93% 656
Hale 1,041 95.77% 43 3.96% 2 0.18% 1 0.09% 998 91.81% 1,087
Henry 1,040 95.59% 47 4.32% 0 0.00% 1 0.09% 993 91.27% 1,088
Houston 2,715 85.78% 426 13.46% 18 0.57% 6 0.19% 2,289 72.32% 3,165
Jackson 1,726 73.54% 603 25.69% 3 0.13% 15 0.64% 1,123 47.85% 2,347
Jefferson 30,043 79.35% 7,261 19.18% 361 0.95% 196 0.52% 22,782 60.17% 37,861
Lamar 1,434 88.41% 180 11.10% 2 0.12% 6 0.37% 1,254 77.31% 1,622
Lauderdale 3,258 85.24% 546 14.29% 6 0.16% 12 0.31% 2,712 70.95% 3,822
Lawrence 1,436 79.51% 357 19.77% 3 0.17% 10 0.55% 1,079 59.74% 1,806
Lee 1,731 86.25% 258 12.86% 5 0.25% 13 0.65% 1,473 73.39% 2,007
Limestone 1,853 93.49% 112 5.65% 4 0.20% 13 0.66% 1,741 87.84% 1,982
Lowndes 752 94.95% 13 1.64% 25 3.16% 2 0.25% 727[c] 91.79% 792
Macon 1,098 90.67% 110 9.08% 3 0.25% 0 0.00% 988 81.59% 1,211
Madison 2,947 83.58% 466 13.22% 39 1.11% 74 2.10% 2,481 70.36% 3,526
Marengo 1,873 96.40% 67 3.45% 3 0.15% 0 0.00% 1,806 92.95% 1,943
Marion 1,646 66.48% 813 32.84% 4 0.16% 13 0.53% 833 33.64% 2,476
Marshall 2,500 73.81% 870 25.69% 8 0.24% 9 0.27% 1,630 48.12% 3,387
Mobile 10,831 78.29% 2,685 19.41% 257 1.86% 62 0.45% 8,146 58.88% 13,835
Monroe 1,688 97.86% 31 1.80% 2 0.12% 4 0.23% 1,657 96.06% 1,725
Montgomery 6,196 86.01% 802 11.13% 146 2.03% 60 0.83% 5,394 74.88% 7,204
Morgan 3,841 87.65% 512 11.68% 9 0.21% 20 0.46% 3,329 75.97% 4,382
Perry 1,032 95.47% 30 2.78% 5 0.46% 14 1.30% 1,002 92.69% 1,081
Pickens 1,423 93.37% 91 5.97% 5 0.33% 5 0.33% 1,332 87.40% 1,524
Pike 1,741 94.93% 87 4.74% 3 0.16% 3 0.16% 1,654 90.19% 1,834
Randolph 1,249 72.20% 469 27.11% 7 0.40% 5 0.29% 780 45.09% 1,730
Russell 1,666 93.81% 94 5.29% 11 0.62% 5 0.28% 1,572 88.52% 1,776
Shelby 1,903 63.86% 1,063 35.67% 3 0.10% 11 0.37% 840 28.19% 2,980
St. Clair 1,878 66.60% 921 32.66% 8 0.28% 13 0.46% 957 33.94% 2,820
Sumter 1,058 95.06% 52 4.67% 0 0.00% 3 0.27% 1,006 90.39% 1,113
Talladega 3,077 83.05% 593 16.01% 12 0.32% 23 0.62% 2,484 67.04% 3,705
Tallapoosa 2,309 93.33% 156 6.31% 1 0.04% 8 0.32% 2,153 87.02% 2,474
Tuscaloosa 4,697 86.10% 658 12.06% 50 0.92% 50 0.92% 4,039 74.04% 5,455
Walker 4,007 66.47% 1,852 30.72% 133 2.21% 36 0.60% 2,155 35.75% 6,028
Washington 1,304 97.02% 31 2.31% 6 0.45% 3 0.22% 1,273 94.71% 1,344
Wilcox 1,162 98.81% 14 1.19% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,148 97.62% 1,176
Winston 865 35.05% 1,588 64.34% 4 0.16% 11 0.45% -723 -29.29% 2,468
Totals 171,443 79.75% 40,930 19.04% 1,522 0.71% 1,085 0.50% 130,513 60.71% 214,980

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Dixiecrat

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Analysis

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Thurmond overwhelmingly won Alabama by a margin of 60.71 percent, or 130,513 votes, against his closest opponent, Republican New York governor Thomas E. Dewey.[19] This was only a slight decline upon Franklin Roosevelt’s performance in Alabama four years previously, and it is known that many Thurmond voters thought incorrectly that they were actually voting for Truman. Two third-party candidates, Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party and Claude A. Watson of the Prohibition Party, appeared on the ballot in Alabama, though neither had any impact. This was the first time ever that a Democrat won the presidency without carrying Alabama, and the first time since 1872 that the state failed to vote for the national Democrats.

84% of white voters supported Thurmond.[23]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ This poll gave Thurmond 43 percent, Dewey 16 percent, Truman 32 percent, and 9 percent for other candidates or undecided.[13] Its results understated actual support for Thurmond in the Deep South by up to 15 percent.
  2. ^ Thurmond was on the ballot in all former Confederate slave states, in the border slave state of Kentucky and the postbellum state of North Dakota, besides receiving a total of 3,769 write-in votes in New Hampshire, New York, Maryland, Missouri and California.
  3. ^ In this county where Wallace ran second ahead of Dewey, margin given is Thurmond vote minus Wallace vote and percentage margin Thurmond percentage minus Wallace percentage.

References

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  1. ^ Perman, Michael (2001). Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. Introduction.
  2. ^ Stanley, Harold Watkins (1987). Voter mobilization and the politics of race: the South and universal suffrage, 1952-1984. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 100. ISBN 0275926737.
  3. ^ a b Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffery A. (2020). Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. Cambridge University Press. pp. 251–253. ISBN 9781107158436.
  4. ^ Casdorph, Paul D. (1981). Republicans, Negroes, and Progressives in the South, 1912-1916. The University of Alabama Press. pp. 70, 94–95. ISBN 0817300481.
  5. ^ Phillips, Kevin P. (1969). The Emerging Republican Majority. Arlington House. p. 255. ISBN 0870000586.
  6. ^ Chiles, Robert (2018). The Revolution of '28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal. Cornell University Press. p. 115. ISBN 9781501705502.
  7. ^ Geselbracht, Raymond H. (editor); The Civil Rights Legacy of Harry S. Truman, p. 53 ISBN 1931112673
  8. ^ Boyd, William M. (Third Quarter 1952). "Southern Politics 1948-1952". Phylon. 13 (3): 226–235. doi:10.2307/271190. JSTOR 271190.
  9. ^ Jenkins, Ray (2012). Blind Vengeance: The Roy Moody Mail Bomb Murders. University of Georgia Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0820341019.
  10. ^ Key, V.O. junior; Southern Politics in State and Nation; p. 340 ISBN 087049435X
  11. ^ Kehl, James A.; 'Philadelphia, 1948: City of Crucial Conventions', Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 67, no. 2 (Spring 2000), pp. 313-326
  12. ^ Barnard, William D. (November 30, 1984). Dixiecrats and Democrats: Alabama Politics. University of Alabama Press. p. 123. ISBN 0817302557.
  13. ^ Gallup, George (October 15, 1948). "Only Four States Go to Dixiecrats". Chattanooga Daily Times. Chattanooga, Tennessee. p. 12.
  14. ^ Moss, Charles (October 24, 1948). "Alabama". The Montgomery Advertiser. Montgomery, Alabama. p. 16.
  15. ^ Hall jr., Grover C. (October 25, 1948). "Alabama". The Miami News. Miami, Florida. p. 8.
  16. ^ Stokes, Thomas (October 27, 1948). "Washington with Thomas Stokes". The Charlotte Observer. Charlotte, North Carolina. p. 6-A.
  17. ^ Tucker, Ray (November 1, 1948). "Truman Whistling in a White House Graveyard, Says Tucker, Predicting It'll Be a Dewey Sweep". Mount Vernon Argus. Mount Vernon, New York. p. 8.
  18. ^ Gallup, George (November 1, 1948). "Final Gallup Poll Shows Dewey Winning Election with Wide Electoral Vote Margin". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. pp. 1–2.
  19. ^ a b c "1948 Presidential General Election Results – Alabama". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  20. ^ Gans, Curtis and Mulling, Matthew; Voter Turnout in the United States, 1788-2009, p. 481 ISBN 9781604265958
  21. ^ Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1951. Alexander City, Alabama: Outlook Publishing Co. 1951. pp. 478–489.
  22. ^ "AL US President Race, November 2, 1948". Our Campaigns.
  23. ^ Black & Black 1992, p. 147.

Works cited

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