Analysis of the election results by the New York Times produced a revealing map, which showed that across large areas of the south, particularly in Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, the national swing to the Democrats was actually reversed.
In contrast to the rest of the US, Republicans made big gains in counties that were disproportionately white and poor. Fewer than one in three southern whites voted for Mr Obama, compared with 43 per cent of whites nationwide.
Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors racial violence, said: "I think the very idea of a black man being elected to the White House is shocking to some subset of the American white population."
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