What if Mississippi was still black majority in the 60s?

Derek Jackson has asked about this, before, but most of his threads didn't get much traction.
Regardless, Mississippi was black majority until 1940. What if Mississippi was still black majority in the 60s? How many soldiers would be necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act? How much white flight would there be?
We can be sure of one thing, though, Mississippi would be a Democratic state, given how racially polarized the parties are in the American South. BTW, if the 2000 election, as it happened in our timeline, wasn't butterflied, Al Gore would win, due to winning Mississippi's electoral votes.
Regardless, what would this timeline's Mississippi look like?
 

Foxx

Banned
If Mississippi was blacker, then it would be easier to enforce civil rights there, no?

Also, maybe Mississippi could become a type of black Zion in this scenario for blacks who want to live under black rule as opposed to under white rule.
 
If Mississippi was blacker, then it would be easier to enforce civil rights there, no?

Also, maybe Mississippi could become a type of black Zion in this scenario for blacks who want to live under black rule as opposed to under white rule.

Mississippi's ruling white minority would fiercely resist the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act that would put the black majority in control.
 

Foxx

Banned
Mississippi's ruling white minority would fiercely resist the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act that would put the black majority in control.
They already fiercely resisted civil rights in real life, no? If worst comes to worst, they could simply move out of Mississippi and to somewhere else.
 
They already fiercely resisted civil rights in real life, no? If worst comes to worst, they could simply move out of Mississippi and to somewhere else.

But, in this timeline, Mississippi would be black majority so the white population would resist even more than in our timeline, hating the idea of living under a black dominated state government. I'm not sure how many soldiers would be necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
 

Foxx

Banned
But, in this timeline, Mississippi would be black majority so the white population would resist even more than in our timeline, hating the idea of living under a black dominated state government. I'm not sure how many soldiers would be necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
However many it would've been, the US military would've likely been able to provide them.
 
One thing to remember is that "black majority" =/= "black voting age majority". In 1960, 42 percent of Mississippi's total population was African American; by 1970 that was down to 37 percent. So at the time the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, blacks were presumably about 40 percent of the total population. But the percent of voting-age blacks was presumably a bit smaller (in 1970 it was 35 percent according to the Almanac of American Politics 1970). This makes getting a black voting majority in MS very difficult. You need much less out-migration but (1) it's not cleat how you get this, and (2) if you do somehow get it, it has effects in the North as well as South. For example, with less black voting power in the North there might be less pressure to pass voting rights (and other civil rights) bills.
 

Foxx

Banned
One thing to remember is that "black majority" =/= "black voting age majority". In 1960, 42 percent of Mississippi's total population was African American; by 1970 that was down to 37 percent. So at the time the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, blacks were presumably about 40 percent of the total population. But the percent of voting-age blacks was presumably a bit smaller (in 1970 it was 35 percent according to the Almanac of American Politics 1970). This makes getting a black voting majority in MS very difficult. You need much less out-migration but (1) it's not cleat how you get this, and (2) if you do somehow get it, it has effects in the North as well as South. For example, with less black voting power in the North there might be less pressure to pass voting rights (and other civil rights) bills.
Were young blacks more likely to move out of Mississippi than older blacks were?
 
One thing to remember is that "black majority" =/= "black voting age majority". In 1960, 42 percent of Mississippi's total population was African American; by 1970 that was down to 37 percent. So at the time the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, blacks were presumably about 40 percent of the total population. But the percent of voting-age blacks was presumably a bit smaller (in 1970 it was 35 percent according to the Almanac of American Politics 1970). This makes getting a black voting majority in MS very difficult. You need much less out-migration but (1) it's not cleat how you get this, and (2) if you do somehow get it, it has effects in the North as well as South. For example, with less black voting power in the North there might be less pressure to pass voting rights (and other civil rights) bills.

What if more of Mississippi's whites migrated to more prosperous states in the first decades of the 20th century? Would that be enough?
 
Were young blacks more likely to move out of Mississippi than older blacks were?

Probably, but the blacks who remained still had a higher percentage who were under voting age than the whites did, simply because black families tended to have more children than white ones.
 
What if more of Mississippi's whites migrated to more prosperous states in the fist decades of the 20th century? Would that be enough?

Immigration makes that hard, and if you have earlier immigration restrictions than in OTL, while that may lead to more white out-migration from MS, it will also lead to more black out-migration.
 
Immigration makes that hard, and if you have earlier immigration restrictions than in OTL, while that may lead to more white out-migration from MS, it will also lead to more black out-migration.

As far as I know, there were few immigrants in the South, because of its poverty. I would think this was especially the case in Mississippi, the poorest state.
 
As far as I know, there were few immigrants in the South, because of its poverty. I would think this was especially the case in Mississippi, the poorest state.

I meant that immigration made it hard for Mississippians to find jobs in the North and thus limited their out-migration.
 
One problem that occurred once blacks began to vote in Mississippi and other southern states was that if a town or county ended up under "black rule" like a majority on the city council, the mayor, the county executive etc, the state government would find a way to starve that area of state funds - bottom of the list for road construction and repair as an example. Also as things began to shift laws were passed to allow state aid for "private" schools which would then build brand new schoolhouses and campuses while public schools continued to deteriorate.
 
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