Hi all,

I've always found American politics fascinating, even though I have a fairly basic knowledge of it.

As an Englishman, we don't get taught anything about American politics/history, and a lot of the sources I try to read from online tend to have a lot of unfamiliar jargon or require more background knowledge than I possess.

What really interests me, is a trend I've seen looking at the electoral college maps for each election from the mid to late 1800s until 1964. In the mid to late 1800s, I saw a general trend of the North voting Republican and the South voting Democrat, with a couple of exceptions where one party won in an absolute landslide, such as FDR over Hoover etc. In 1928, Herbert Hoover won the majority of the country, apart from the Southern belt of Louisiana, through Alabama, Arkansas etc, through to South Carolina, all states that today we associate as absolute Republican strongholds where the Democrats have zero chance. Over the time, the North voting Republican swapped with the South voting Democrat.

My question is, in as basic layman terms as possible, what were the reasons and policies that made the North formerly vote Republican, the South formerly vote Democrat, and then what caused the change, particularly the South dramatically flipping in 1964 and never looking back?

Thanks all!