Overview

Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater was a Republican political strategist who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee and managed George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. Atwater is most notorious for his explicit 1981 interview (later known as the "Atwater Interview") in which he described the evolution of the Southern Strategy: "You start out in 1954 by saying n****r; n****r; n****r. By 1968 you can't say n****r; that hurts you; backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing; states' rights; and all that stuff." He explained how racial messaging was refined into abstract economic language that disproportionately harmed Black communities while maintaining plausible deniability. During the 1988 campaign; Atwater orchestrated the Willie Horton ad; which featured a Black convicted murderer who committed assault; armed robbery; and rape while on a Massachusetts furlough program under Governor Michael Dukakis. The ad is considered one of the most racially divisive political advertisements in American history. Atwater also spread unfounded rumors that Dukakis's wife had burned an American flag. While dying of a brain tumor in 1991; Atwater issued a public apology; stating "My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart; a lot of brotherhood." His tactics became the template for modern political campaigns; influencing Karl Rove; Roger Ailes; and subsequent generations of Republican strategists.

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Sources & Documentation

2 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports