From Emancipation to Jim Crow: A Political History
February 28, 2008
1860 : Republican Abraham Lincoln is elected president in 1860. South Carolina secedes from the Union, followed by the other slaveholding states. All the New England states except Connecticut already have abolished slavery; other states, for example Illinois, ban it in their constitutions.
1861: President Lincoln declares the Southern states to be in rebellion and raises an army.
1862: Abe Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the Western territories. He announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which from January 1863 abolishes slavery in the seceded states of the Confederacy – where his authority is not recognized. Slavery also ended in District of Columbia in 1862.
1865: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery.
1866: Congress passes the first civil rights legislation, which confers citizens on African Americans and assures citizens equal rights under the law, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto. The 14th Amendment guaranteeing African American citizenship is passed, but won’t be ratified until 1868.
1867: Congress passes the Reconstruction Act that says male citizens of every race, color and previous condition can vote for delegates to frame states’ new constitutions.
1870: Congress ratifies the 15th amendment which says the right to vote should not be denied due to race, color or previous servitude.
African Americans Enter Politics
After the end of the civil war, from 1865–1877, former Confederate states were controlled by the federal government before being readmitted to the Union. For a brief time, before segregation, African Americans voted in huge numbers electing hundreds of Black politicians, from formerly enslaved men to free African Americans.
In South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, Black voters outnumbered Whites, while in Alabama, Georgia and Florida they were close to equal in number. The numbers showed in the state elections. For example, in South Carolina, Black lawmakers formed the majority (76 0f 124 delegates). Blacks were elected to all the state legislatures.
The new politicians varied enormously in education and background. Francis Cardozo, of Charleston, was educated at the University of Glasgow and at seminaries in Scotland. Blanche K. Bruce, John R. Lynch and James Rapier owned plantations. Charles Nash was a bricklayer, Jefferson Long was a tailor, and Hiram Revels was a preacher. Of the 16 African Americans elected to the U.S. Congress, 10 had been born into slavery. Many of those former slaves were self educated.
Many successes were achieved. Both in state and federal office, African American Congressmen worked to ensure Black rights in the former Confederate states, and enacted legislation in areas such as education – intended to benefit poor Blacks and Whites. Contemporary historians praised the Radical Republicans and the Freedmen for introducing literacy and public transit to areas of the rural South where it had not previously existed. Historically Black Universities, such as Howard and Fisk, were founded.
Republican or Democrat?
The earliest Black politicians all were Republicans, but since the Civil Rights movement, African Americans have been more likely to join the Democratic ticket. Why? Both the parties and the issues changed over time. Abe Lincoln, a Republican president, issued the Emancipation Proclamation and in general the Republicans, also known as radicals were more supportive of Black civil rights. So most Blacks gravitated to the Republican Party. Democrats of the time were more likely to oppose Black enfranchisement and participation in politics. During the Reconstruction period, many Blacks stood as Republican candidates and were elected to state offices. 14 were elected to the U.S. Congress.
But between 1877 and the 1960s, the Democrats became the party most closely identified with the civil rights movement. By 1964, it was a Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed into law the Civil Rights Bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, education and employment. Democrats became identified as stronger supporters of civil rights and African Americans gravitated to the party. Today most national African American politicians are Democrats.
The End of Reconstruction
In 1877, the U.S. presidential election between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes ended not with a clear victory, but with a dispute in the electoral college. The Democrats relinquished the presidency in exchange for a Republican promise that they can control Southern states without interference. All over the south in ensuing elections, African Americans were prevented from voting by intimidation and ballot rigging put legislators into power with a segregationist agenda. Progressive laws were repealed or allowed to expire and harsh laws enacted that controlled the lives of African Americans. Of course, the South wasn’t the only part of the country to sanction racist laws and practices – but it was in the South that segregation and Jim Crow laws became most entrenched.
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws, named after “Jump Jim Crow” a song-and-dance caricature of African Americans, were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated “separate but equal” status for Black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided for Whites. The most important Jim Crow laws required that public schools, public accommodations, and public transportation, including buses and trains, have separate facilities for Whites and Blacks. The facilities established for African Americans were always far inferior to Whites, and reinforced Black poverty and political exclusion.