Disenfranchising African Americans

8.5-4—Summarize the policies and actions of South Carolina’s political leadership in implementing

discriminatory laws that established a system of racial segregation, intimidation, and violence.

Background

• 1876- Governor Wade Hampton & the “Redeemers” had political control & power in SC

• Conservative Democrats had “redeemed” SC from the Republicans by reminding them of the “lost cause” (ie. Civil War)

• Antebellum elite regained political control & wanted to restore SC as close as possible to its pre Civil War conditions with limited taxes

Disenfranchised • Governor Hampton- keep up the status quo of Reconstruction

• Other Democratic Party members- Disenfranchisement of African American voters

• Congressional districts redrawn to make only one district a African American majority

• This gerrymandering limited the number of African Americans elected to the US Congress

Wade Hampton

Populist Ben Tillman

• He was a Populists b/c he appealed to the values & needs of the common people (poor white farmers) against the Conservative elite

• (unlike other Populist) He did not support the right of African Americans to vote

• Led to increased violence & lynching of African Americans who where opposed to the Populist Party

• Tillman ran on a platform of white superiority

• Tillman’s bigotry & racist rhetoric led to a reemergence of violence and terror from the Reconstruction Era

• “Race Baiting”The People’s Party Video

Senator Tillman• 1895, Tillman urged his

followers to call for a new state constitution to replace the Reconstruction constitution of 1868

• Wanted to make sure the black majority did not support the Conservative opposition

• New constitutions required: – Literacy test to vote (Eight Box

Law used)– Required a poll tax to be paid 6

months before the election• Poor farmers had little money so

far ahead of the harvest• Poor, literate white voters were

protected by the “grandfather clause” (ability to vote if their grandfathers voted in 1860)

Eight Box Law: • A legal ways to keep blacks from voting after Reconstruction (1882)• Every precinct had eight labeled ballot boxes • Votes would count only if the correct ballot was placed in the

correct box• Some people opposed the bill because it would also keep poor

whitesfrom voting• Reducing the African American vote was worth it in the end to the

political elite, even if some whites could not exercise their right to vote

“Separate But Equal”• New constitution continued….• Required separate schools black and white children• SC passed Jim Crow Laws (video)• Supreme Court ruled such laws were constitutional in 1896

– Ruling- “Separate but Equal” facilities satisfied the 14th amendment’s requirement for equal protection under the law (Plessy v Ferguson)

• African Americans were affected directly & indirectly by the Jim Crow Laws for over 6 decades

• SC African Americans did protest against their exclusion, but were quickly silenced through intimidation, threats, & lynching

Video: Plessy v Ferguson

Jim Crow Video