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Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · The Great Betrayal —
Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era.
~8 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
In 1876, the presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden ended in a national crisis that would reshape American democracy for nearly a century. The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, effectively ending Reconstruction. This political deal allowed Southern Democrats to regain control of state governments through what historians call Redemption. White supremacist paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan had already used violence to suppress black voters since 1868. By 1870, over 1,000 deaths occurred during election campaigns, mostly targeting African Americans or Republicans who supported them. The Enforcement Acts passed by Congress in 1870 empowered President Grant to deploy armed forces against organizations depriving people of rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet these measures only temporarily suppressed the first wave of the Klan before new groups emerged. The second wave of violence resulted in over 1,000 deaths, usually black or Republican. In North Carolina, Governor William W. Holden attempted to suppress the Klan in 1870, known as the Kirk-Holden War. His efforts led to his impeachment and removal from office after white backlash. The Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) that protections of the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to individual actions but only to state government actions. This decision left freedmen without legal recourse when facing private violence. By 1903, the Supreme Court upheld Alabama's disenfranchising constitution in Giles v. Harris, calling it the most momentous ignored decision in constitutional history.
The Mississippi Plan
Mississippi adopted a new constitution in 1890 containing provisions requiring voters to pay poll taxes and pass literacy tests. These requirements were subjectively applied by white administrators to effectively disenfranchise most blacks and many poor whites. The constitutional provisions survived a Supreme Court challenge in Williams v. Mississippi (1898). Other southern states quickly adopted what they called the Mississippi Plan. By 1908, all states of the former Confederacy had passed new constitutions or suffrage amendments. Legislators created barriers including longer residency requirements, rule variations, and subjective literacy tests. In Louisiana, state legislators passed a new constitution in 1898 requiring applicants to pass a literacy test in English or their native language. They also certified owning $300 worth of property as an alternative requirement. Separate registration lists were kept for whites and blacks, making discrimination easy for white registrars. By 1900, black voters in Louisiana dropped from 130,334 to just 5,320 on the rolls. By 1910, only 730 blacks remained registered, less than 0.5% of eligible black men. North Carolina adopted a constitutional suffrage amendment in 1900 that lengthened residence periods and enacted educational qualifications assessed by registrars. A grandfather clause exempted from the poll tax those entitled to vote on the 1st of January 1867. This excluded all blacks who did not have suffrage before that date. The effect was the complete elimination of black voters from voter rolls by 1904. Contemporary accounts estimated that seventy-five thousand black male citizens lost the vote.
State Case Studies
Louisiana's population was evenly divided between races in 1896 with 130,334 black voters on registration rolls. The state passed a new constitution in 1898 requiring literacy tests or property certification. By 1910, only 730 blacks remained registered. In North Carolina, Republicans and Populists won control of the state legislature in 1894. Daniel Lindsay Russell became governor in 1897, the first Republican since Reconstruction ended in 1877. More than 1,000 elected or appointed black officials existed including George Henry White elected to Congress in 1897. Democrats ran on white supremacy in the 1898 election led by Furnifold McLendel Simmons and Josephus Daniels. They disenfranchised minorities primarily blacks through laws restricting voter registration. Virginia saw voting fall by nearly half after disfranchisement of blacks following their 1902 constitutional changes. Georgia became the last former Confederate state to initiate full-scale disenfranchisement plans largely eliminating seventy thousand blacks remaining on rolls. Texas enacted the Terrell Election Law creating a poll tax from 1902 that disenfranchised virtually all African-American voters and most poor whites. Voter turnout among males over twenty-one fell from over eighty percent to under thirty percent. Oklahoma became unique as it only became a state in 1907. Despite having less than 10% black population, Oklahoma had from this relatively small population as many registered black voters as Tennessee, North Carolina or Virginia by 1940.
Border State Resistance
Delaware voted for the Republican Party presidential candidate from 1896 to 1932 except in 1912 when Woodrow Wilson won. The Republican Party ensured Black people could vote because of their general support for Republicans. West Virginia returned to Republican power in 1896 controlling the governorship for eight of the next nine terms. Kentucky elected some Republican governors during this period including William O'Connell Bradley (1895, 1899) and Augustus E. Willson (1907, 1911). Maryland's legislature passed a poll tax in 1904 but incurred vigorous opposition and repealed it in 1911. Referendums for bills to disenfranchise blacks failed three times in 1905, 1908, and 1910. The last vote was the most decisive rejection nationally. Black men comprised 20% of the electorate and had established themselves in several cities where they had comparative security. Immigrant men comprised 15% of the voting population and opposed these measures. Missouri transitioned from rural economy to hybrid industrial-service-agricultural economy between Civil War and World War II. It elected some Republican governors before 1964 beginning with Herbert S. Hadley (1909, 1913). Missouri voted for the Republican presidential candidate in the 1904 election for first time since 1872 repositioning itself as bellwether state throughout twentieth century.
Congressional Malapportionment
From 1903 to 1953, the Democratic Solid South enjoyed about 25 extra seats in Congress for each decade. Southern white Democrats exercised Congressional representation derived from full count of population while disfranchising several million black and white citizens. Their representatives controlled chairmanships of important committees in both houses by 1920. They favored seniority privileges which became standard allowing them control over rules budgets and patronage projects. Representative George H. Tinkham offered resolution on the 6th of December 1920 for Committee of Census to investigate alleged disfranchisement of blacks. He intended to enforce provisions of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments regarding reapportionment related to voting population rather than general population. Table showed Florida had four representatives but only 31,613 total votes compared to Colorado's four representatives with 208,855 votes. Alabama had ten representatives with 62,345 total votes while Minnesota had ten with 299,127 votes. Georgia had twelve representatives with 59,196 total votes versus New Jersey's twelve with 338,461 votes. Tinkham was defeated by Democratic Southern Bloc and fears among northern business elites increasing voting power of Northern urban working classes.
Legal Challenges
The Supreme Court ruled in Giles v. Harris (1903) effectively upholding southern voter registration provisions calling it most momentous ignored decision in constitutional history. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s ruling said provisions were not targeted at blacks thus did not deprive them of rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Supreme Court invalidated Oklahoma Constitution's old soldier and grandfather clause exemptions from literacy tests. This decision affected similar provisions in constitutions of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia election rules. Lane v. Wilson (1939) struck down an Oklahoma provision designed to disenfranchise blacks replacing clause struck down in Guinn. The law permanently disenfranchised everyone qualified to vote who had not registered during twelve-day window between April 30 and the 11th of May 1916 except those who voted in 1914. Smith v. Allwright (1944) reviewed Texas case ruling white primary unconstitutional as state failed to protect constitutional rights of citizens. Following 1944 ruling civil rights organizations moved quickly to register black voters. In Georgia by 1947 they succeeded getting 125,000 black Americans registered representing 18.8 percent of eligible age. Over Confederacy as whole black voter registration steadily increased from less than 3 percent in 1940 to 29 percent in 1960 and over 40 percent in 1964.
The Voting Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress on the 8th of January 1964 that session be known as one doing more for civil rights than last hundred sessions combined. On the 21st of June 1964, civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney disappeared in Neshoba County Mississippi while registering black voters. Their bodies were recovered forty-four days later from earthen dam where buried. Cecil Price and sixteen others indicted for murders; seven convicted. The Southern Bloc of eighteen southern Democratic Senators led by Richard Russell launched filibuster against Civil Rights Bill on the 30th of March 1964. After fifty-seven working days Senate ended debate with seventy-one votes to twenty-nine first time Southern senators failed winning such tactics against civil rights bills. President Johnson signed Civil Rights Act into law the 2nd of July 1964 prohibiting segregation in public places barring unequal application of voter registration requirements. It did not explicitly ban literacy tests used to disqualify blacks and poor white voters. Unprovoked attack on the 7th of March 1965 by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama persuaded President and Congress overcome resistance. Passed in 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibited use of literacy tests requiring registration providing recourse for local voters to federal oversight intervention plus monitoring areas historically having low turnout ensuring new measures not taken against minority voters.
What happened during the Compromise of 1877 regarding federal troops in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida?
The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida to end Reconstruction. This political deal allowed Southern Democrats to regain control of state governments through what historians call Redemption.
How did Mississippi adopt a new constitution in 1890 to disenfranchise voters?
Mississippi adopted a new constitution in 1890 containing provisions requiring voters to pay poll taxes and pass literacy tests. These requirements were subjectively applied by white administrators to effectively disenfranchise most blacks and many poor whites.
Why did black voter registration drop so drastically in Louisiana between 1896 and 1910?
Louisiana passed a new constitution in 1898 requiring applicants to pass a literacy test or certify owning $300 worth of property. By 1910, only 730 blacks remained registered, which was less than 0.5% of eligible black men compared to 130,334 in 1896.
What was the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling in Giles v. Harris in 1903 regarding Alabama's constitution?
The Supreme Court ruled in Giles v. Harris (1903) that protections of the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to individual actions but only to state government actions. This decision upheld Alabama's disenfranchising constitution and left freedmen without legal recourse when facing private violence.
When did President Lyndon B. Johnson sign the Civil Rights Act into law and what did it prohibit?
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on the 2nd of July 1964 prohibiting segregation in public places and barring unequal application of voter registration requirements. It did not explicitly ban literacy tests used to disqualify blacks and poor white voters.