Release date: Jan. 14, 2004
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Book On Southern Republicans Receives National Honor

Renowned political science experts and twin brothers Merle Black, the Asa G. Candler Professor of Political Science at Emory University, and Earl Black, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Political Science at Rice University, have received the V.O. Key Award, a highly competitive, national award presented to the authors of the most outstanding book on Southern politics, for their most recent work, "The Rise of Southern Republicans."

The Black brothers received the award from the Southern Political Science Association, the oldest and largest regional association of political scientists in the country, during the group's annual meeting, Jan. 8-10. Merle Black also is outgoing president of the association.

The Blacks’ third book on Southern politics documents how dramatically the political tide has changed in the South. The book illustrates how the Republican Party’s inroads into Southern precincts have transformed American politics and given the United States its first national two-party system since the heyday of the Whigs in the 19th century.

The book traces the development of the Republican Party in the South, beginning with the advent of the civil rights movement in the 1950s when white Southerners slowly began to identify themselves more and more with the GOP. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, that movement gained steam.

Citing survey and exit poll data, the Blacks show that fully 70 percent of white conservatives identified themselves as Republicans in 2000 when just 32 years ago, barely 20 percent of white conservatives identified with the GOP. Over the same period, the percentage of white moderates identifying themselves as Democrats has dropped from nearly 60 percent to just over 30 percent.

What all this means for national politics is that, to win national elections, the Republicans no longer are forced to draw massive majorities in Northern states to offset their equally large deficits in South, according to the Blacks. The book was published in May 2002 by Belknap Press, a unit of Harvard University Press.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For more than a decade Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, a comprehensive metropolitan health care system.

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