Congressional Support of Civil Rights Public Policy: From Bipartisan to Partisan Convergence

Much of the scholarship on the adoption of civil rights policies cites the importance of the Democratic Party and notes a lack of Republican support. We analyze congressional support for the universe of civil rights laws this century to demonstrate empirically the relationship between partisanship and support. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Democratic support for much of this legislation was not as strong as Republican-due to a north-south ideological schism that resulted in southern Democrats consistently voting against civil rights legislation. However, the earlier convergence, or fairly stable bipartisan voting pattern of Republicans and northern Democrats, appears to have been replaced by a convergence in support between northern and southern Democrats, and a concomitant decline in Republican support.