Race and Electoral Mobilization: White Southerners, 1952–1968

Abstract

The voting turnout rate among whites in the South has long been lower than elsewhere, but in recent years the gap has diminished. Neither the earlier difference nor the recent southern increase is due to the socioeconomic composition of the regions; rather, the increase has been greatest among southerners who believe that the major parties take distinct stands on racial issues. The change in southern turnout is therefore explained by the increased salience of racial issues, and they can therefore be expected to remain important in southern politics

John L. Hammond is Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, and Research Associate of the Center for Policy Research. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the American Sociological Association, August 1974. The data used were collected by the Institute for Social Research and provided by the Inter-University Consortium for Political Research. The author whises to acknowledge the helpful comments of Gordon Adams, Adrienne Asch, Gerald Finch, Anne Foner, Eugene Litwak, Patrick Molloy, George Martin, and Patrick Peppe.