Why did southern whites resist the civil rights movement? In retrospect, it might seem that ferocious opposition was preordained given that racial division and white dominance had long been defining features of southern politics. Crucial differences among white southerners fade away in the popular historical imagination as all are cast as a uniform mass of intemperate racists supporting flamboyant, fire-breathing politicians, brutal sheriffs, and shadowy extremist organizations. Such caricatures, however, are unsatisfactory if we wish to account for the outcomes of the civil rights movement. In contrast to the portrait of strident and cohesive opposition, some argue that the southern white countermobilization to civil rights was actually weaker and declined sooner than what might have been expected. It should be remembered as well that organized segregationists calling for massive resistance against civil rights mobilization and federal intervention into southern racial politics often bemoaned the unwillingness of their white brethren to rally in defense of Jim Crow. I therefore suggest that an explanation for the triumphs of the civil rights movement begins with an account of white resistance and countermobilization. Obviously, an analysis of reactive countermobilization highlights how much opposition the civil rights movement had to overcome while, at the same time, reveals considerable weaknesses in the southern defenses of Jim Crow institutions.