Why did the solid blue South turn republican red after the 1960's?

The Democrats supported what the Repubicans abandoned.

The blue South turned their backs on the party they blamed for overturning Jim Crow laws at the federal level. They blamed the Democratic Party lead by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations for that. They felt abandoned by the Democrats, and white southerners had nowhere else to turn to at that point but to the Republican Party, who welcomed them with opened arms. From about 1968 onward the white South became the GOP base rather than accept the party of desegregation, the Democrats.

Lyndon Johnson reportedly foresaw this in 1965:

"When he (successfully passed these Civil Rights Acts) he said to his aid Bill Moyers that I may have turned the South over to the Republican Party for the next generation., I don’t think he could possibly have known just how prophetic that statement was."

No. In the 1960s, Southern Democrats (a/k/a Dixiecrats) opposed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. When Northern Democrats pushed these laws through over Southern oppositions, the Dixiecrats began looking for a new party. First Richard Nixon and then Ronald Reagan used a campaign strategy of appealing to these folks and during the 1970s and 80s, you had a lot of Southern Democrats switching parties until by the mid-90s folks the majority of third and fourth generation white Southerners were Republican. (Of course, this change in the Republican caucus had the side effect of driving Northern Republicans into the Democratic Party.)

guess what major legislation passed in that time period that the southern democrats were (and still are) vehemently against, causing them to switch from Democrat to Republican

note: I have have not mentioned race, either

Because that is when the "Old Southern Democrats" abandoned the Democrat Party and started their take over of the Republican Party. What you have to remember is many of them have never forgiven the Republicans for defeating the Confederacy and those are the TeaPublicans who are out to destroy the Democrats, the Republicans and the USA. And they were well on their way to doing all three until this week.

A number of reasons.

1) Hoover campaigned there.

2) Eisenhower campaigned there harder.

3) Nixon campaigned in every state and began to appeal to the religious right.

4) Ronald Reagan firmly appealed to the religious right and southern conservatives.

5) The Democratic Party used to stand for decentralized (state) governments, limited federal intrusion. But with Wilson, they shifted more toward Progressivism and federal paternalism. The South historically doesn't like the federal government telling them what to do.

6) Democrats tend to ignore the South nationally in Presidential campaigns. They simply don't campaign hard for it.

Democrats who campaign for the South tend to do okay. LBJ - Texan. Carter, Georgian. Clinton, Arkansas. Gore, Tennessee. Edwards, North Carolina. Obama, campaigned in and won North Carolina and Virginia. Virginia has long been a swing state but Democrats simply didn't campaign for it, so it's been seen as a red state.

The South historically elects Democratic governors. Most of their governors in their history have been Democrats. They also have very liberal cities. Atlanta, one of the most heavily Democratic cities in the nation. They've elected I think one Republican mayor since 1860s. New Orleans, very Democratic.

The South is a little upset with Democrats because of their support for Progressivism and federal paternalism and interference. Democrats also tend to view the South as a bunch of redneck hillbilly racist trailer-trash. That is NOT a good way to endear yourself to voters. The GOP has countered this by talking more about individual rights, states rights, and appealing to Southern Christians.

That's why.

If you want a serious answer from a professional historian, get a copy of "The Disruption of the Solid South" by George B. Tindall. It answers this question in detail.

That's a good point

I'd like to see the answer to this too

You really need to study American history. You're wrong about how things went down.

Your off by about 34 years... the states turned red after the 1994 elections as the speaker back then nationalized the house elections with the contract with America... Remember that!!