Portland Observer Section II Thursday, February 23, 1978 Page 5
The first Black Senator and
Congressmen
Back row:
Honorable Robert C. DeLarge,
South Carolina
Honorable Jefferson H. Long,
Georgia
Front row:
Honorable Benjamin S. Turner,
Alabama
Senator H. R. Revels, Mississippi
Honorable Josiah T. Walls,
Florida
Honorable Jose;>h H. Rainy,
South Carolina
Honorable R. Brown Elliot,
South Carolina
by Charles V. Hamilton
The struggle for political equality
A Beginning
In 1880, a former Confederate
Colonel. W.F. Foster, was run
ning for a seat in the Alabama
legislature on the Democratic
Party ticket. His district includ
ed Macon County (Tuskegee)
which was approximately 80 per
cent Black, and the Black citizens
were registered voters. Thus,
Mr. Foster desperately needed
Black political support. He went
to a local Black political leader, a
Republican named Mr. Lewis
Adams and the two men bargain
ed and struck an agreement: if
Adams would persuade the
Blacks to vote for Foster, Foster,
in return, once elected, would
push for a state appropriation to
establish a school for Black peo
ple in Macon County.
Tuskegee Institute
Adams delivered: Footer was
elected on the strength of the
Black votes, and he kept his end
of the bargain. The Alabama
legislature appropriated the sum
of $2,000 per year to pay teach
ers' salaries. Adams wrote to
Hampton Institute in Virginia
seeking a person to come and set
up a school in Macon County. The
Principal of Hampton Institute
recommended one of his best
teachers, Booker T. Washington.
Thus, out of the Black political
power of Tuskegee (Macon
County), Alabama, there deve
loped a major Black school -
Tuskegee Institute.
This was not an isolated inci
dent in the post-Civil War years.
In many instances, the recently
emancipated Blacks engaged in
local political action for purposes
of exacting benefits for masses of
people, not just for a handful of
individuals. In 1887, Black vot-
ters outnumbered white voters
in five Southern states (Alaba
ma, Florida, Louisiana. Missis
sippi, and South Carolina), and
the racial voter registration fi
gures were close in Georgia
(95,168 Blacks, 96,333 whites).
Politics was used effectively by
the Blacks during this period.
Southern state constitutions
were rewritten establishing a
public school system for all -
interracial school systems! Ldui-
siana law explicitly stated:
"There shall be no separate
schools or institutions of learning
established exclusively for any
race by the state of Louisiana.”
Imprisonment for debt was
abolished in South Carolina.
Black people ran for and were
elected to office at the local, state
and national levels. Two Black
U.S. Senators came out of Mis
sissippi (Hiram Revels: 1870-71,
and B.K. Bruce: 1875-81). Strong
civil rights measures were adopt
ed in Mississippi, Louisiana, and
South Carolina. The Blacks who
entered politics during that
period were representative of
the broad spectrum of talent and
integrity. Some were college
trained (ten of the twenty-two
who served in Congress had
attended college; six were law
yers); some could hardly read
and write. Some were impeccab
ly honest; others were hardly
of suspect character. In all, the
record made by the Blacks in the
Reconstruction governm ents
was one far superior to what
followed after 1890.
The American Betrayal
This country's Bicentennial
should have been an occasion for
profound reflection on the his
tory of racial contradictions. At
no time in the history of this
country has this society faced
squarely the inconsistency be
tween its pronouncement and its
practices regarding Black people.
During the American Revolu
tion, when Americans were pro
claiming their freedom from En
gland, Black slaves were remind
ing the country of this blatant
dichotomy. Petitions were sent
to the legislatures of several
states. On July 4th, 1852, Fred
erick Douglas reminded a Ro
chester, New York audience that
the Declaration of Independence
had a different meaning for Black
people:
“Are the great principles of
political freedom and of natural
justice, embodied in that Declar
ation of Independence, extended
to us?...What to the American
slave is your Fourth of July? I
answer, a day that reveals to him
more than all other days of the
years, the gross injustice and
cruelty to which he is the con
stant victim. To him your cele
bration is a sham; your boasted
liberty an unholy license; your
national greatness, swelling van
ity; your sounds of rejoicing are
empty and heartless; your de
nunciation of tyrants, brass
fronted impudence: your shouts
of liberty and equality, hollow
mockery; your prayers and
hymns, your serm ons and
thanksgiving, with all your reli
gious parade and solemnity; are
to him mere bombast, fraud,
deception, impiety, and hypo
crisy -- a thin veil to cover up
crimes which would disgrace a
nation of savages. There is not a
nation on the earth guilty of
practices more shocking and
bloody than are the people of
these United States at this very
hour.”
The experiment in American
political democracy begun after
the Civil War was more than
many white Americans could
stand. It was clear to many
white racists and to the vested
economic interests that if newly
freed Blacks could continue in
their course of political participa
tion -- allying with many poor
Southern whites -- this country
could eventually move toward a
level of political and economic
equality never before exper
ienced in any modern society.
Populist Movement
its state constitution to exclude
Thus, as early as 1876, North
the Blacks from political partici
ern economic interests began to
pation. The voter registration
pull out of the South, leaving the
books were wiped clean and all
precariously existing Blacks at
citizens were required to regis
the mercy of southern whites
ter under rules and regulations
determined through hook, crook,
that clearly discrim inated
violence and chicanery to subdue
against Blacks. Literacy tests
the Blacks. The Ku Klux Kian
were required, and these were
movement flourished, virtually
administered in a racially discri
unchecked.
minatory manner.
Poll taxes
For a brief time, the Populist
were instituted that imposed an
Movement forged an alliance be economic burden on all poor
tween Blacks and whites. In people, but especially on Blacks.
selected places such as St. Louis
Party primaries were closed to
and Kansas in 1892, Tom Watson Blacks. “Grandfather clauses"
of Georgia wrote, regarding were instituted, which, in effect,
Black and white farmers: “You stated that if one's forebearers
are kept apart that you may be voted prior to 1863 or 1870 one
separately fleeced of your earn could register rather simply.
ings. You are made to hate each Otherwise, stringent tests had to
other because upon that hatred is be passed. Obviously, few if any
rested the keystone of the arch of Blacks could qualify under the
financial despotism which en first criteria - their parents and
slaves you both.” Without ques grandparents were slaves prior
tion, the potential for a viable to the date stipulated.
lower class political alliance
existed, but it never really ma
terialized. As Southern Blacks
Seeking A New Life
became more politically impor
This was one of America's
tant, whites felt threatened, and
most hypocritical periods. Men
they combined to begin to dis
mouthed the cliches of demo
franchise the Blacks. Populist
cracy and political freedom, and
Tom Watson made a switch,
all the while looked the other
allying with the lily white wing
way or pretended not to under
of the Republican Party.
In
stand the violations of democracy
South Carolina, the Populists,
taking place.
And this was
under the leadership of “Pitch-
proceeding at precisely that time
fork” Ben Tillman, turned
when the country was welcoming
against the Blacks.
to its shores millions of European
Beginning in 1890, one South
immigrants coming to this coun
ern state after another revised
try seeking a new life of political
Dr. Charles V. Hamilton, President of the Metro
politan Applied Research Center and Professor of
Government at Columbia University, is one of the na
tion’s foremost experts on black politics. Dr. Hamilton
is the author of a number of books and with Stoke-
ly Carmichael was co-author of "Black Power: The
Politics of Liberation in America.” His articles have
appeared in Ebony. Black World. New York Times
Magazine, Black Scholar. Phylon and Journal of Negro
Education.