The racism never went away it just learned to hide behind code words and shared looks.

Ah yes, the Lee Atwater strategy to bring in the Reagan administration. It’s not blacks they’re against, just “Welfare queens.”

Watergate is as far as you can draw a direct line.

I’d say Nixon administration as a whole. They picked up the dixiecrats post Civil Rights movement. Look up Nixon’s political Strategist Kevin Phillips and his discussion on the Southern Strategy where it was specifically targeting the racist whites to bring them into the Republican party.

But then that’s the part where I can say goes all the way back to slavery, but hey, if you grew up in the South the Civil War was never quite over even to modern era. But I’d definitely say the Southern Strategy the Republicans put into place would be where I’d say the beginning of drawing a direct line to where we’re at now.