Mr. M.N. Work has discovered the following:
In the ten years 1876-1886, Negroes were elected to the South Carolina Legislature as Democrats. The Columbia (South Carolina) State in its issue of December 24, 1918, advised that an effort be made to have Negroes enroll in Democratic precinct clubs and participate in the primaries of the State along with white men. As a precedent for this, it was pointed out that: "In 1876 when the Democrats redeemed the State from misrule, they appealed to the Negroes to join their party, and a minority of Negroes, more numerous, perhaps than is generally supposed, wore the 'red shirt.' Many of them did valuable service in behalf of respectable government. During the ten years following that time, until the primary election took the place of the convention system in all but two or three of the counties, the Democratic Negroes were given political recognition. From Barnwell, Colleton, Orangeburg, and Charleston Negro Democrats were elected to the legislature and in a number of counties other Negroes were elected to such offices as coroner and county commissioner.
"With the extension of the primary system a racial line came to be drawn in the Democratic organization and it was made very nearly impossible for a Negro to participate in it. An exception in the party law provided that Negroes who voted for General Hampton in 1876 and who continued to vote the Democratic ticket in succeeding years be allowed to vote in the primaries, but the rules applying to these cases were in a form so rigid that they reduced the Negro Democratic vote."[1]
A SUMMARY OF NEGRO MEMBERS OF SOME RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATURES
[Transcriber's Note: The following two tables were published as one large, wide table. They have been split into two tables, with the first column repeated, for clearer presentation in this e-book.]
=============+==============+==============+==============+ | 1868-69 | 1870-71 | 1871-72 | +--------------+--------------+--------------+ |Whites|Negroes|Whites|Negroes|Whites|Negroes| -------------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+ Alabama | | | | | | | Senate | 32 | 1 | 29 | 4 | 29 | 4 | House | 74 | 26 | 73 | 27 | 86 | 14 | Arkansas | | | | | | | Senate | 23 | 1 | 22 | 2 | .. | .. | House | 73 | 7 | 71 | 9 | .. | .. | Georgia | | | | | | | Senate | 41 | 3 | 42 | 2 | .. | .. | House | 145 | 30 | 149 | 26 | .. | .. | Mississippi | | | | | | | Senate | .. | .. | 29 | 4 | .. | .. | House | .. | .. | 77 | 30 | 76 | 39 | N. Carolina | | | | | | | Senate | 47 | 3 | 47 | 9 | 45 | 5 | House | 102 | 18 | 101 | 1 | 108 | 12 | S. Carolina | | | | | | | Senate | 24 | 9 | 22 | 11 | .. | .. | House | 48 | 76 | 49 | 75 | .. | .. | Texas | | | | | | | Senate | .. | .. | 28 | 2 | .. | .. | House | .. | .. | 82 | 8 | .. | .. | Virginia | | | | | | | Senate | .. | .. | .. | | .. | .. | House | 119 | 18 | 116 | 21 | .. | .. | -------------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+