Democratic splinter party in the South during the 1948 elections. Disgruntled by President Truman’s civil-rights initiatives and fearing loss of local control, 6,000 Southerners met in Birmingham and nominated Strom Thurmondof South Carolina for president and Fielding Wright of Mississippi for vice-president. Less a visionary party than one of conservative backlash, the ticket captured 1.2 million votes and four states— Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina. Yet, it was unable to throw elections in the House of Representatives or stop Truman. This movement foreshadowed the emergence of a conservative Republican South of the 1980s and 1990s.