The dixiecrat summer of 1948: Two South Carolina editors—a liberal and a conservative—foreshadow modern political debate in the South

This study explores the political ideologies oftwo South Carolina editorialists-one liberal, the other conservative-during the tumultuous summer of1948. Rebellious Southern Democrats walked out of the party’s national convention that year and launched the so-called Dixiecrat campaign for the presidency. At the same time, a federal judge in Charleston delivered a series ofblistering opinions ordering an end to whites-only primaries in the state. The two editors. William Watts Ball of Charleston and James A. Rogers of Florence. represented competing visions ofthe South in 1948. Ball was fiercely conservative, an unabashed supporter ofthe old South, Rogers a self-proclaimed liberal who envisioned a progressive future. Their debate that summer offers insights into the historical and cultural forces that have shapedpolitics in the South ever since.