This absolute loyalty began to break down during World War II when Vice-presidents Henry A. Wallace and Harry Truman began to realize that a legacy of discrimination against blacks was a threat to the United States' image abroad and its ability to win the Cold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric of Communism.

[7] In the 1948 presidential election, Truman was backed by only 24 percent of South Carolina's limited electorate – most of that from the relatively few upcountry poor whites able to meet rigorous voting requirements – and state Governor Strom Thurmond won 71 percent, carrying every county except Anderson and Spartanburg.

Despite Truman announcing as early as May 1950 that he would not run again for president in 1952,[8] it had already become clear that South Carolina's rulers remained severely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party.

[9] Both Thurmond and former Governor James F. Byrnes would endorse national Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower[10] – who ran under an independent label in South Carolina – and Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II only won narrowly due to two- and three-to-one majorities in the poor white counties that had given substantial opposition to Thurmond in 1948.

[15] Ultimately South Carolina was won by Adlai Stevenson II (D–Illinois), running with Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver by a more decisive margin than polls predicted.