So I know that after the civil war the southern states were mainly democratic, and that as the democrats moved towards civil rights republicans started to brute force all the black representatives out of the party to appeal more to the southern population. I also know that before Roosevelt republicans were in favour of a bigger influence of the federal government, and that democrats started supporting it too to get the votes of the West. With Roosevelt, the republicans who always represented big businesses started opposing centralisation.
What I don't understand is how the two things fit with each other: is the South made of mainly big businesses? From what I knew it was mainly agrarian landlords, what am I missing?
The change in the Republican and Democratic party platforms is a constant source of curiosity here at /r/AskHistorians, and has therefore become part of the subreddit's FAQ page. I am especially fond of the answers by /u/Samuel_Gompers
/u/Takeoffdpantsnjaket has recently addressed In what ways did the Republican and Democratic parties keep their identities after the Republican "Southern Strategy" of the 1960s and 1970s?
/u/DeSoulis has previously answered How did the US political two-party system operate post-Reconstruction until the Southern Strategy? and does pretty well with a question that covers nearly a century.