By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Turn the pages of South Carolina history to about 50 years ago if you want to better understand the rise of Donald Trump, the current GOP presidential candidate who is fueling rage across America.

Back in 1968, America was changing. African Americans, long disenfranchised across the South, had won major civil rights victories. They were voting, going to integrated schools and starting to move into “white” neighborhoods. It was a big change for the white South.

A key Republican Party strategist at the time, Harry S. Dent Sr. from South Carolina, recognized how the political playing field was shifting and translated it for impact. He became a major architect of Republican Richard Nixon’s so-called “Southern strategy,” which successfully sought to win white votes in the solid Democratic South by appealing to fears and prejudices of white Southern voters upset by changes caused by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.