No small part of the liberal gains in this period was due simply to the crumbling of the old immovable wall of religious, ethnic, and racial antiliberalism. It was not that the South ceased to resist and to fight for its antiliberal position, but it was increasingly isolated, and the dominance it had still enjoyed in the 1920s was gone. With that powerful obstacle removed, new groups seeking equality in the American system had more room to maneuver and to make use of the tools provided by the founders for pressing for their rights. Part of this revolution was circumstantial—the Depression, the
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