Pg. 81- 1876 Presidential election:
-Republican Rutherford. B. Hayes
-Democrat Samuel Tilden
-Total 185 electoral votes to confirm who was president
Tilden = 184
Hayes = 165
-20 disputed electoral votes had not been counted
-If Hayes received all 20 he would become president
-if Tilden received just one he would become president
-the uncounted votes came from 3 disputed southern states: Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina
-all three states showed dual election results so both sides won in each of the 3 states
-Democrats has been extremely active in both suppressing the black vote through violence and altering the counts at the ballot box
-Democrats would sit next to the ballot boxes making sure black voters reached the “right” decision so many blacks did not even try to vote
***Election Fraud: suppress the black vote and blacks forced to vote Democrat
-African American, U.S. Rep. John Roy Lynch, recounted his experience of his vote-counting difficulties at the ballot box
“The ballot box stuffer and the shotgun holder of the South?
“The official return is an official fraud.”
-voter fraud by Democrats was indeed a problem in the South
-they changed voting counts and intimidated voters
***they also took names off cemetery headstones and then cast a fraudulent vote in the name of a dead voter
-Democrats engaged in widespread voter fraud and intimidation at the local level
-Democratic presidential candidate, Samuel Tildens, in his 1876 campaign had actually engaged in direct bribery of election officials in the disputed States
-keeping Black Americans from voting in the disputed States so corruptly altering the voting counts
–Democrats claimed they won those disputed States
-Republican counted the suppressed African American votes and ignored the fraudulent votes, asserting they had won the disputed three states
-Electoral College did not count any of the disputed votes, so the U.S. House was required to decide who would become president
-the commission was composed of 7 Democrats, 7 Republicans, and 1 Independent
-when the one independent resigned the commission shifted to 7 Democrats and 8 Republicans
Outcomes:
–there had been voter suppression through the killing, injuring, and intimidation of black Americans by Democrats
-Republicans voted 8-7 to Democrats to elect Republican Rutherford B. Hayes
-Democrats refused to ratify this vote-threatening to filibuster so the result was no president
***this controversy continued for four months
Pg. 85 The Great Compromise
-the Democrats offered to ratify the Commission's report but only if the last federal troops were withdrawn from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina to officially ending Reconstruction in the South
***Rutherford B. Hayes became President
-withdrawal of last federal troops, the South became known as the “solid Democratic South”
-meaning that all Southern States legislatures were again solidly in the hands of Democrats
***white supremacy in the South was reestablished
Florida:
-Democrats for a second time challenged the credentials of African American Rep. Josiah Walls
-Democratic House sent him home
-Walls was defeated by white Democrats in the next election ending his congressional career
-eventually all remaining black legislatures in other Southern States were defeated and removed from Congress
****No Black Representative for 70 years
Pg. 86 Return back to 1876:
-control of the federal Congress at that time was split between Republicans and Democrats
-no more civil rights laws were being passed, public debates began to focus on issues that had already been raised earlier civil rights laws that Democrats were trying to reverse
Ex. Educational Policy: Politics and the School Question: Attitude of the Republican and Democratic Parties in 1876
-it contrasted the positions of the two parties on the issue of education
-Republicans supported public education for all children, regardless of race
-Democrats not only opposed such public education but strongly supported segregated education
Pg. 87 Education
-Democratic Congressman James Harper of North Carolina published and widely distributed
“Separate Schools for White and Colored with Equal Advantages; Mixed Schools Never!”
“The only Positive Action of the Republican Party on the School Question in Ohio, is to Destroy the System by Requiring White and Black to be Educated Together.”
-Democrats response against open education for black youth sometimes went beyond words to acts of violence
Ex. 8 schools were burned down in Memphis in which black youth were being taught
Ex. churches in the South that provided education to youth were burned down too like St. Phillips in Richmond
-Democrats opposition to equal education for black youth is numerous and abundant
Pg. 88 Rep.
John Roy Lynch:
***black Americans knew how important a good education was to their own future
“No educated people can be held in bondage.” Rep. John Roy Lunch
-Black leaders understood that good education was vital not only to black Americans but also to the future of the entire country
Rep. Joseph Hayne Rainey
-spoke on a bill to strengthen the education system for all students, including young black students
-he wisely opposed Democrats but 87% of the Democrats in Congress at that time voted against the education bill to allow black Americans to attend school with white Americans
****segregated, inferior, and dilapidated schools for blacks became the norm in the southern States under Democratic control
***timeline thought: 1875 Republicans pro civil rights to 1954 for segregation to be defeated!!
1954: the Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education
-struck down State segregation laws in education, reinstating what Republicans had done nearly 75 years earlier in the 1875 civil rights bill
Democrats response:
-100 Democrats in the U.S. Congress, 19 Senators, & 81 Representatives passed the “Southern Manifesto” denouncing the Court’s decision to end segregation
***those 100 democrats, in 1956, declared that desegregation was “certain to destroy the system of public education” and that there would be what they called “explosive and dangerous condition created by this decision”
Democratic Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia
-issued written attack on the Court decision and promised that there “will never be mixed schools while I am Governor.”
-he even warned for forthcoming “bloodshed” because of the desegregation decision
Democratic Governor James Coleman of Mississippi
-when asked about desegregation of public schools
“I would say that a baby born in Mississippi today will never live long enough to see an integrated school.”
Democratic Governor Allan Shivers of Texas
-deployed the Texas Rangers to keep blacks from entering public schools in Mansfield
Democratic Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas
-called out the National Guard to keep black students from entering Central High School in LIttle Rock
Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower
-quickly intervened and federalized the Arkansas National Guard to not follow through with the Governor’s orders
-he replaced the Arkansas National Guard with 1,200 troops from the elite 101st Airborne Division to protect the nine black students who had chosen to go to Central High
-Democrats strongly protested Eisenhower’s actions to protect these black students
Democratic Senator Richard Russell of Georgia
-complained about using “the whole might of the federal government, including armed forces…, to force a commingling of white and Negro children in the State-supported schools of the State
****in the minds of many southern Democrats, the State-supported schools of the State were not to be open to black students in the State
Democratic Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia
-attacked Eisenhower’s actions and praised Arkansas Governor Faubus for his attempt to prevent blacks from entering Central High School
-he promised that as long as he held office that he would “maintain segregation in the schools; and the races will not be mixed come hell or high water.”
Democrat-controlled Georgia legislature:
-if desegregation were attempted, the public schools of the State would be dissolved and replaced with State-run private schools so that blacks could be excluded
-these became known as “segregation academies”
Couldn’t Stop Desegregation Response:
-Democratic Governor Faubus of Arkansas couldn’t stop black students from attending school because of the federal protection they received, he simply shut down the schools for the next year to prevent further attendance
-Democratic Governor James Almond of Virginia also shut down public schools rather than permit black students to attend
1960: Louisiana
-Democratic Governor Jimmie Davis supported segregation
-he had four federal marshals accompany little Ruby Bridges so that she could attend a public elementary school in New Orleans
-when Ruby entered the classroom, every other parent withdrew their children and for the entire school year, Ruby was the only student in that classroom
-it was just Ruby and her schoolteacher from Boston
***White Democrats = Racism
Pg. 92 Democratic Governor Hugh White of Mississippi:
-requested the Evangelist Billy Graham to hold segregated crusades
-Graham refused to do
Democratic Governor George Timmerman
-learned Billy Graham had invited African Americans to a Reformation Rally at the State Capitol, he denied use of the facilities to the evangelist
***Democratic response against Black Americans and against the whites who supported them which was common in the South to justify disgusting behavior was simply “States’ Rights”
***same rhetoric they used to justify slavery, the creation of a slave-holding nation, enacting laws enforcing segregation, withholding voting rights from black Americans, 80 years after the Civil War
1964 civil rights bill becomes law
-Democratic Governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox, sold his fast-food business he owned rather than serve backs in his restaurants
Era of Desegregation:
-tried to remake the image of racism so long and so properly associated with the southern cry of “States Rights”
-Southern leaders began to claim the southern Confederate flag as a symbol of perverted States’ Rights philosophy
***the Confederate flag was meant to represent heritage not hate
Pg. 93 Democrats who changed their minds about segregation:
-Governor Frank Clement, Tennessee
-Governor LeRoy Collins, Florida
-Governor Happy Chandler, Kentucky
***usually overshadowed by the negative behavior of the others
-Democrat leaders stood in the doorways of schoolhouses telling black children that they were not wanted
-Why? Because they didn’t want black children receiving a good education like white children
Today
-Democrats keep black students in failing schools and fight against them getting out
Ex. Washington D.C.
-84% of the city’s students are black
-$13,500 is spent each year on every student (almost twice the national average)
-D.C. schools currently rank among the worst of all schools in the nation
-Congress tried to provide a $7,500 voucher for low-income students trapped in failing schools
-a voucher would be redeemed to attend a better school
***70% of African Americans with children support educational choice