Quote:
Originally posted by Obi_Wan_kenobi
This is a repsonse to ktsnake. MOst black people who voted during the time of reconstruction were Republican. The first black man ever elected to congress was a black republican from SC. It wsant until Roosevelt came along with the New Deal circa the depression era did most blacks begin to vote democratic. It is almost ironic since Democrats have fought very hard and have killed black people to stop them from voting and blacks are dying to vote for them. Go figure, anywho numbers dont lie. In 1965 73% of all Democrats voted against passing the Civil Rights act of 1965. Also George Bush SR was the first President to enforce the Civil Rights act that produced the all black congressional deistricts.
|
To add onto this (wow, paying attention in class really pays):
During Reconstruction, Republicans were the main supporters of the rights of Negroes to vote and hold office. And Negroes were able to win elected office, especially in southern states, because the freed slaves who now had voting rights outnumbered the whites in those states.
However Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes (a Republican himself) withdrew all national Republican party support for the rights of Negroes in politics. Subsequently, the rulings of Plessy v. Ferguson and other separatist rulings by a strongly Republican government turned Negroes away from that party.
(Sorry to interject... my prof. would be so proud).