Ronald reagan, race, civil rights, and immigration

Ronald Reagan’s record on civil rights matters reveals much greater complexity and significant tensions within his administration. Reagan’s record on questions of race, civil rights, and immigration reflects his ideological positions on these issues as well as the political compromises his administration had to make during his eight years in office. Ronald Reagan’s conservative stance on social issues and on matters of racial justice first came into public view in the 1960s. The Reagan administration quietly supported a compromised renewal of the Voting Rights Act, thus seemingly demonstrating his allegiance to conservatives. Jeremy Mayer argues that Reagan’s entry into presidential politics in fact precipitated a seismic shift in race and partisan alignments. President Reagan’s greatest judicial legacy was his appointment of approximately four hundred federal judges and his appointments to the US Supreme Court.