Southern Political Science Association
The Southern Political Science Association is an American learned society. It promotes political science in the Southern United States.History
The Southern Political Science Association was founded in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. It is independent of the American Political Science Association. Its first president was Cullen B. Gosnell, a Professor of Political Science at Emory University.
The association organizes a conference every January. From 1929 to 1936, it took place in Atlanta, Georgia. However, since 1937, its location has changed to a different location in the South every year. From 1956 to 1963, the annual meeting took place in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where both whites and blacks could find places to stay.
Its president was Alfred Benjamin Butts in 1938. Roscoe C. Martin served as its president in 1942. He was followed by Herman Clarence Nixon, who served as its president in 1944 and 1945. By 1955, its president was Manning J. Dauer.
In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave an address at the SPSA meeting in Durham, North Carolina. During the McCarthy era of the 1950s, the association remained apolitical. By 1973, its president was Samuel DuBois Cook, an African-American political scientist.
The SPSA publishes The Journal of Politics, a peer-reviewed academic journal.
