Key to the white primary’s effectiveness was the fact that from Reconstruction until 1968 the South was a one-party system—only Democrats needed apply, so despised was the party of Lincoln. Several of the states, therefore, began to discern that one way to skirt around the Fifteenth Amendment was to tinker with the primary election, during which the Democratic candidate was chosen. This seemed foolproof for two reasons. First, because the South was a one-party region, whoever won in the spring would certainly be the victor in November.
