Historical Flashback: 1900 A look back at the disenfranchisement of African Americans in North Carolina

Historical Flashback: 1900 A look back at the disenfranchisement of African Americans in North Carolina.
White Supremacy was the stated goal

Between 1890 and 1908, every state in the Deep South adopted a new state constitution, explicitly for the purpose of disenfranchising African Americans.

This historical flashback takes a look at the state of North Carolina in the year 1900 via newspaper articles from the period of disenfranchisement. Can this happen again? You decide.

First a look at the political climate in North Carolina in 1900.

The white Africans’ Wilmington race riot against African Americans took place on November 10, 1898. It is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. The event initiated an era of more severe racial segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South. It is the only successful coup d’état on record in the United States.

George Henry White (December 18, 1852 – December 28, 1918) an African American attorney was elected as a Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district between 1897 and 1901.

In 1874 White enrolled as a student at Howard University. White finished at Howard in 1877 and returned to North Carolina, where he was hired as a principal at a school in New Bern. He also read the law, studying it in the city as a legal apprentice under former Superior Court Judge William J. Clarke, who had become a Republican after the war and founded a newspaper. In 1879 White was admitted to the North Carolina bar.

White is the last African American Congressman during the beginning of the Jim Crow era and the only African American to serve in Congress during his tenure.

In North Carolina, “fusion politics” between the Populist and Republican parties led to a brief period of Republican and African American political success in elections from 1894 to 1900. After White left office, no other African American was elected to serve in Congress until Oscar De Priest from Chicago, Illinois in 1928.

After disenfranchisement was achieved in new state constitutions and laws from 1890 to 1908, no African American would be elected to Congress from the South until Barbara Jordan from Texas and Andrew Young from Georgia in 1972 following the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during the Civil Rights Movement.
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Video:What Did George Henry White Do? Biography of A Congressman – A look at how the black vote was disenfranchised and how the media lied about the black vote

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In 1992, Eva Clayton and Mel Watt became the first African Americans to win election to the U.S. House from North Carolina since 1898.
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Video: Wilmington Race Riot 1898

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Video: North Carolina State University professor explains factors that led to North Carolina’s disenfranchisement of blacks

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1898 From the state capital – Raleigh, NC

1898- Wilmington, NC

1899 From the state capital – Raleigh, NC

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January 25, 1900 A view from Raleigh

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August 1, 1900 A view from Washington, DC

August 2, 1900 A view from Baltimore

August 3,1900 A view from Wilmington, North Carolina home of the Race Riot of 1898

August 3, 1900 A view from Atlanta – Victory for Civilization

August 3, 1900 A view from Baltimore

August 3, 1900 A view from Charlotte – “A White Supremacy Landslide”

August 3, 1900 A view from Raleigh – “The New Era of Good Feeling and Its Leader”

August 3, 1900 A view from New Orleans

August 3, 1900 A view from New York City

August 3, 1900 A view from Norfolk, Virginia – “North Carolina Redeemed by The White People”,  “Negroes Relegated To The Rear”

August 3, 1900 A view from New York – Who are the “Red Shirts”

August 3, 1900 A view from Seattle

August 3, 1900 A view from Asheville, North Carolina

August 13, 1900 A view from Indianapolis – “No Vote For Negroes”

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U.S. History: When African Americans were forced out of cities and counties – Wilmington, North Carolina
https://dilemma-x.net/2015/09/23/us-history-when-african-americans-were-forced-out-of-cities-and-counties/

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The African American vote- The battle between the Republicans and Democrats
https://dilemma-x.net/2016/09/07/the-african-american-vote-the-battle-between-the-republicans-and-democrats/

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The Swinging Pendulum -Hate vs Progress -Women’s Suffrage : The majority of white women rejected Hillary Clinton for Donald Trump
https://dilemma-x.net/2016/11/11/history-white-women-rejected-hillary-clinton-for-donald-trump/