When and how did racial liberalism find its way onto the liberal – and Democratic Party – agenda? Rather than seeing the 1960s as the critical moment in the partisan realignment on race, Eric Schickler claims that the process of connecting civil rights support to the liberal project began in the late 1930s, thanks to the rise of the CIO, the efforts of African American activists, and the reaction of southern Democrats.

Eric Schickler, Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932–1965 Princeton University Press, 2016