Date of Award
6-26-2026
Date Published
August 2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Advisor(s)
Carol Faulkner
Keywords
alabama;anticommunism;civil rights movement;nation of islam
Abstract
The Alabama Legislative Commission to Preserve the Peace, also called the Peace Commission, was an investigative agency created by the Alabama state legislature in 1963. It was abolished in 1975. During its existence it investigated and created reports on a variety of targets engaged in civil rights activism, communism, or anything the Commission deemed “un-American.” In this thesis, I argue that the Peace Commission was an unusual example of a southern nationalist institution in the Cold War south because of the timing of its creation, the opposition it faced, its small size and budget, and its unsuccessful conflict with the Nation of Islam. While it may have been a tool for Governor George Wallace, it was more than that – its complete history is instructive as to Alabama’s declining ability to resist civil rights and the other pressures of the domestic Cold War.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Aycock, Nola, "Defending Southern Nationalism: the Investigations of the Alabama Legislative Commission to Preserve the Peace, 1963-1975" (2026). Theses - ALL. 1052.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/1052
