Younger members and foreign members may not be aware that the "solid South" in the United States was a solid Democrat South and had been so since the so -called Republican Reconstruction of the South following the Civil War.
Actually, for a while post-Civil War, the South was Republican for a variety of fairly obvious reasons. In the 1880's or so , with the so called "end of Reconstruction, Racial Segregation spread from the North to the South [read "The Strange Career of 'Jim Crow' "]and the "solid South" as a Democratic voting block, one often taken for granted, by the Democratic Party emerged.
The Dixiecreats actually well-preceeded Strom Thurmond, as the Democratic Party was almost always Regional divided--Gold Democrats in the North; Populism,Silver Democrats, bimetalism, and William Jennings Bryan("The Great Commoner") in the South and Midwest.
It was not until the 60's the the Solid [Democrat] South" began to break up, and Southern party member change their affiliations as Thurmond did , to Republican. Reagan pretty much solidified a solid Republican South.
As for the "southern committee chairmen" referred to in the article, their was a tradition in the South--more so than the North--to re-Elect the incumbant. This allowed Southern Congressman to amass considerable seniority, all-important under the Congress' seniority system of picking Committee charpersons.
In case anybody is wondering, Why is that so important: The Committee Chairpersons can send a Bill to the Floor for voting--or bottle it up "in Committee". The "logrolling" system--by which votes were exchanged, put Chairpersons in the position of delivering clusters of votes to/against any Bill.
And dat ain't da Bill Clinton
Somebody should bring up all the third Party candidates, including Theodore Roosevelt. Err..just for the heck of it.
And watch for my Post on James Madison and Federalist Paper #57.
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