Newswise — STORY: Sam Webb, Ph.D., a UAB associate professor of history, says the Great Depression caused southern voters in the 1930s to choose more liberal political candidates, and the same could happen again today as a result of the current economic crisis.
WHAT: "The South was already 'Democratic' in the 1930s, in the sense that the region generally voted Democratic in presidential elections," said Webb, who is writing a book about two former U.S. senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman from Alabama who served during the New Deal era and were known as liberals.
"But the New Deal led to a flowering of liberalism in the region in the 1930s and 1940s," Webb said. "When people are more interested in their economic condition, or when it becomes a matter of crisis, they tend to play down issues like race and religion and look for candidates that will help them get through their troubles.
"It is in such times they remember that the Democratic Party was responsible for Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, TVA, federal aid to education, FHA housing loans and the bargaining rights of workers. The Republican Party opposed these. Right now, people are less interested in racial and religious matters and more interested in how they are going to pay their mortgages and keep their jobs."
WHO: Sam Webb, Ph.D., J.D., teaches in the UAB Department of History. He is author of the book "Two Party Politics in the One-Party South: Alabama's Hill Country, 1874-1920."
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