In the time around the American Civil War, it is widely well known that the Republican Party was founded on Anti-Slavery statutes, and that the Democratic Party has a legacy of racism. Yet looking at present day, many democrats are focused on social freedom and republicans are less focused on social freedom and are more focused on economic freedom. When, Why and How did this happen?
Maybe someone could help me reform this question so that it more comprehensible. I'm very ignorant about facts and my question is based on what I have heard and seen in my own life.
I would appreciate an unbiased approach but I realize how difficult this may be. Something that may help if you hold to one of the political parties beliefs is to not accuse the other political party of anything non-factual.
The short answer is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you want a single moment in American history that you can point to and say "this is where the parties truly flipped", it would be here. Sure, the seeds for the switch were planted before the Civil Rights Act during the Progressive Era (see progressive Republicans like Theodore Roosevelt), but we didn't have "Dixiecrats" until the Civil Rights Movement. President Johnson himself is purported to have said to his Press Secretary after signing the 1964 law that the Democrats "have lost the south for a generation."
The other side of the equation was the "Southern Strategy" that the Republican Party adopted during the Richard Nixon era - basically inviting conservative, racist southern Democrats to switch parties after the national Democrats got Civil Rights through Congress. Someone who knows more should pick it up from here, but this will get you started.