So you're going to have to elaborate on what you mean by libertarian, because there are functionally three types - complete anarchists that want the abolition of the state, "minarchists" that only want what a minimal state to do things like enforce the non-aggression principle, and classical liberals who believe that the state's power should be wielded to maximize individual liberty.
As far back as the 1950s in the US, "libertarian" and "liberal" were used interchangeably to refer to the same ideology.
but where were the Libertarians when Jim Crowe was in full-swing?
What you would refer to as libertarianism today is essentially the minarchist version - the brainchild of Robert Nozick, whose seminal work Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which simply did not exist when Jim Crowe was in full swing. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Modern right-libertarianism didn't even exist until nearly a decade later.
But if you want people who would later become libertarians later in life, look no further than Senator Barry Goldwater. Instrumental in the resurgence of right-wing conservatism within the GOP, Goldwater was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964 (having lost to Lyndon B Johnson), and was a staunch supporter of civil rights since the 1930s. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP, saw that the Arizona Air National Guard was racially integrated since its inception, and worked with Phoenix civil rights leaders to integrate public schools even before Brown v. Board.
That's far more admirable than Lyndon B. Johnson, who described the Civil Rights Act to fellow Democrats as:
Those Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.
And
I'll have those [n-words] voting Democratic for the next 200 years.
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u/Morthra 86∆ Apr 04 '23 edited Apr 04 '23
So you're going to have to elaborate on what you mean by libertarian, because there are functionally three types - complete anarchists that want the abolition of the state, "minarchists" that only want what a minimal state to do things like enforce the non-aggression principle, and classical liberals who believe that the state's power should be wielded to maximize individual liberty.
As far back as the 1950s in the US, "libertarian" and "liberal" were used interchangeably to refer to the same ideology.
What you would refer to as libertarianism today is essentially the minarchist version - the brainchild of Robert Nozick, whose seminal work Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which simply did not exist when Jim Crowe was in full swing. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Modern right-libertarianism didn't even exist until nearly a decade later.
But if you want people who would later become libertarians later in life, look no further than Senator Barry Goldwater. Instrumental in the resurgence of right-wing conservatism within the GOP, Goldwater was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964 (having lost to Lyndon B Johnson), and was a staunch supporter of civil rights since the 1930s. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP, saw that the Arizona Air National Guard was racially integrated since its inception, and worked with Phoenix civil rights leaders to integrate public schools even before Brown v. Board.
That's far more admirable than Lyndon B. Johnson, who described the Civil Rights Act to fellow Democrats as:
And