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Conservative Republicans like Barry Goldwater opposed the civil rights laws, not due to white supremacist concerns, but because of states' rights and Constitutional issues. The Republicans who supported civil rights legislation were what we call today RINOs, but were then called "me too" Republicans. National Review, with William Buckley as its editor, was also opposed to Federal legislation in this matter. Goldwater was the first Republican since Reconstruction to win five Deep South states due to his opposition.

On the other hand, while Southern Democrats were almost solidly against civil rights legislation, Northern and Western Democrats supported it, as did Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. In the early 1900s, as blacks left the South in large numbers for Northern urban areas, the Democratic political machines cultivated their votes. These urban centers had large numbers of immigrants from different European nations, and the Democratic politicians set up political clubs in ethnic neighborhoods. Blacks were just another ethnic group to be won over with patronage. While blacks, when they could vote in the South, supported the GOP, they increasingly supported the Democrats in the North.