To: sea_biscuit who wrote (24835 ) 1/4/2005 10:28:32 PM From: Alan Smithee Respond to Democrats - The Party that Gave Southern Racism a Capital "R" and Segregation a Capital "S"In the 1880s and early 1890s, the Populist party was winning the support of poor White and Black farmers and small businessmen. Southern Populist were so successful challenging the Southern Democratic Party that it seemed that soon the Populists would dominate local and state governments in the South. But the Southern Democratic Party and the economic and political elites whose interests they represented were determined to prevent this. They decided that the only way to break the back of the Populist party was to stir up racism and racial division between Blacks and Whites. Southern Democratic party demagogues in the 1890s and early 1900s charged that Blacks were becoming an increasing threat to Southern society, they were once again trying to dominate the South as they had during "Reconstruction." To prevent the growing threat of "Black Rule," Southern Democratic leaders argued that Blacks must once again be put back in their place. Southern Democratic leaders convinced Southern workers and poor Southern farmers that their problems were caused by Black competition for jobs and for economic opportunities. They argued that if Blacks were forced to stay in their place that White Southern workers and farmers would be guaranteed high-paying, good jobs and could once again manage successful farms. In addition, Southern Democratic leaders convinced large plantation farmers and agricultural interests that their growing economic crisis caused by Blacks increasing refusal to work as underpaid farm laborers could be solved if Blacks were forced to stay in their place. In the end, Southern Democratic leaders convinced Southern whites that their success depended on keeping Blacks in their place as second-class citizens with little rights. colorado.edu The Democratic Party’s war against African-Americans continued after the Civil War (which many Democrats in fact opposed, often working actively to undercut the Union war effort). Democrats, both north and south fought the attempt to implement the equality for African-Americans gained at such a high cost. This opposition was often violent. Indeed, the Ku Klux Klan operated as the de facto terrorist arm of the national Democratic Party during Reconstruction. ashbrook.org
