Advisory Committee Chair
Raymond A Mohl
Advisory Committee Members
Rorbert G Corley
Michael N McConnell
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2007
Degree Name by School
Master of Arts (MA) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
This thesis examines the pervasive anticommunist movement in Cold War Alabama. It considers the ways in which many white conservative Alabamians used anticommunism to resist the dramatic social and political changes of the 1960s and 1970s. During this time, Alabama’s anticommunist campaign focused on seeking out “subversives” in public schools. Another main target of the state’s anticommunist network was the black civil rights movement. As the struggle for racial equality gained momentum, many white Alabamians responded by labeling civil rights activists as communists. The thesis argues that Alabama’s anticommunist movement was directed against radicals in academia, secularism, the federal government, non-traditional gender roles, sexual “deviance,” liberalism, and black civil rights. Such use of anticommunism did not marginalize the South, but instead joined it with northern and western anticommunists fashioning a deep-seated conservative political movement. By examining the ways in which Alabama assembled a conservative anticommunist campaign during the 1960s and early 1970s, we can see how the South helped shape Cold War American culture and politics.
Recommended Citation
Bauer, Jordan R., "Domestic Anticommunism In Alabama And The Resurgence Of American Conservatism" (2007). All ETDs from UAB. 3554.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/3554