By D. Stephen Voss
Abstract: Tests the "white backlash" hypothesis often attributed to V.O. Key in three unrelated datasets: precinct-level returns from 1996 congressional elections in Georgia and Florida; a 1995 survey by the Kaiser Foundation that featured a unique package of questions on racial attitudes and policy preferences; and a 1996 amendment election to remove vestigial segregation provisions from the Kentucky constitution, which a third of voters in the state opposed. Two of the three vignettes give a wealth of evidence that the white backlash pattern does not apply to much of the South, especially the more urbanized portion that makes up the "New South." The Kentucky study, meanwhile, suggests that the strong segregation vote resulted almost entirely from confusion rather than racism, since whites and blacks apparently backed the amendment at the same rate.
Parts of this paper were published in revised form in the 2001 SPPQ and 2001 APR. The remainder has been supplanted by a 2000 Midwest Political Science Association paper.
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