Many see racial progress in the United States as an unsteady issue – sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Blacks appear to take two steps forward followed by 1-2 steps backward.
Some analysts have an explanation for this phenomenon. They argue that every time Black Americans make progress in American society – despite the many stumbling blocks in the way – the “powers that be” do something to halt that progress.
There is plenty of evidence during this era to support that argument. For example, the country elected Barack Obama president twice, signifying notable racial progress. However, since his elections, the Voting Rights Act was gutted, permitting voter restriction policies to increase, making it more difficult for many African Americans to vote.
To further enshrine this 1-2 step backward action, along with a few other things, Right-Wingers attempted a coup in January 2021. As part of this coup attempt, Senator Ted Cruz and nine other Republican Senators demonstrated the meaning of MAGA and how serious it is in turning back the clock.
On January 2, 2021, these senators released a statement challenging the Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election because of widespread election fraud – or the widespread claims of such fraud – similar to what the slavery-supporting Democrats claimed in the 1876 presidential election.
Cruz and his fellow senators argued that the appropriate precedent was the Compromise of 1877, which resolved the presidential election in 1876 between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.
For African Americans, this was ominous and dangerous grounds that Cruz and others were treading, as the Hayes-Tilden Compromise ended Black Reconstruction and drove Blacks from the voting booths. This result seems to be the objective of Republicans in the current political environment.
During those days, during the Civil War and Black Reconstruction, Democrats were the bad guys, the ones fighting the war to preserve slavery, fighting Black racial progress, and restoring as much of the old order of things as possible. Republicans were the good guys, fighting the war to limit or abolish slavery.
The 1876 election was one of the most disputed in American history. A stalemate existed as the electoral votes from four states were unresolved.
After months of debate, the two sides reached a compromise. Tilden and the Democrats made an offer that Hayes and the Republicans accepted. The Democrats would yield the presidency to Hayes if he and the Republicans would remove the troops from the South.
Reconstruction – between 1865 and 1877 – was a time of significant political participation by Blacks. Across the South, about 2,000 African Americans served as elected officials, including state legislators and members of Congress. Fourteen blacks won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Mississippi had two U.S. Senators.
There was broad representation in the state legislatures. At one point, 76 of the 124 members of the South Carolina House of Representatives were Black. A majority of the students at the University of South Carolina were Black.
In Virginia, right after gaining freedom, over 105,000 freedmen registered to vote, and 93,000 voted in the election in 1867. Between 1869 and 1890, about 100 African American men served in the General Assembly of Virginia and hundreds more in city and county governments in the state.
All that integration of African Americans into American society started falling apart after the Hayes-Tilden Compromise in 1877. For example, by 1880, no Black students were at the University of South Carolina. With the federal troops removed, Southern Whites retook complete control and banished Blacks to the sidelines, keeping them there under a reign of terror.
History shows we have had ups and downs since then, sometimes moving forward as African Americans and their allies appealed to democratic ideals. But times are changing as Republicans lose their interest in democracy and push toward authoritarianism, which will imperil the country, including African Americans. Limiting the political power of African Americans by limiting their vote is a means of accomplishing this horrible goal.
