Conservative Democrats: Post Reconstruction

1. Constitution of 1895

1.1. In 1895, Senator Tillman urged his followers to call for a new state constitution to replace the one written during Reconstruction.

1.2. The new state constitution required voters to be able to read and interpret the U.S. Constitution. The new State Constitution also required voters to pay a poll tax 6 months before the election.

1.3. Poor farmers had little money prior to harvest time.

2. Plessy V. Ferguson

2.1. In 1896, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Jim Crow Laws were legal.

2.2. The Court ruled that separate-but-equal satisfied the 14th Amendment for equal protection under the law. The court case was known as Plessy v Ferguson.

2.3. As a result of Plessy v Ferguson, there were national Jim Crow Laws.

3. Jim Crow Laws

3.1. Segregation wasthe practice or policy of keeping people of different races, religions, etc., separate from each other.

3.2. In 1896, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Jim Crow Laws were legal.

3.3. These laws impacted the lives of all blacks directly and indirectly for the next 60-70 years. These laws impacted the lives of all blacks directly and indirectly for the next 60-70 years.

4. 8 Box Law

4.1. Democratsadopted the Eight Box Law and poll tax so that illiterate and poor blacks could not vote. (This also affected poor whites.)

4.2. Gerrymander means to divide ( A geograhphical area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections. It also limited limited the amount of blacks elected to the U.S. Congress.

4.3. The SC legislature redrew district linesso that only 1 district had a black majority.

5. State Election of 1876

5.1. Wade Hampton and his redemeers had political power in SC.

5.2. Disenfranchise means to prevent (a person or a group of people) from having the right to vote.

5.3. The Democrats ahd "redeemed" power from the Republicans in SC.

6. Wade Hampton

6.1. Hampton was willing to maintain the status quo on race relations during Reconstruction.

6.2. Hampton recognized the blacks had a right to vote and hold office.

6.3. Other members of the Democratic Party wanted to disenfranchise the blacks in the state.

7. Ben Tillman

7.1. Tillman’s appeal led to an increase in violence and lynching against blacks and populist opposition. Tillman ran on the platform of white superiority and led a movement to further disenfranchise the black voter.

7.2. Tillman’s bigotry and racism led to the reemergence of terror that happened during Reconstruction.

7.3. Violence and lynching increased and blacks who protested were intimidated into silence. Race baiting increased as economic hardship caused poor whites to take out frustrations on an easy target.