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To What Extent Was The Mississippi Constitution Of 1890

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The Mississippi Constitution of 1890 was created fourteen years after the end of Reconstruction in the South and helped usher in the Jim Crow era that would proceed almost a century after. The constitution had many different sections, but a main concern at the time was the uniform poll tax, literacy tests, and the Grandfather clause, which would disfranchise most African Americans and many whites as well. The nation had different ideas on suffrage and who should be able to vote since the end of the war. Certain events would follow that would limit more of the freedoms of African Americans as well. Many newspapers and magazines covered the topic, discussing the varying viewpoints on voting rights and the Mississippi Constitution of 1890. …show more content…

The Republican party neglected the colored man when it had the power to protect him. With the 1885 election and the decline of the Republican party, many African Americans were fearful of the times to come. The party lost its grasp of power, only to relay it to a more discriminatory party that has been known to be “negro-hating.” The neglect from the Republican party and the hate from the Democrats, what would one hope for? Aunt Quinby pushed for an ulterior party to save them. Who else would they rely on? The federal government would not interfere in the states’ matters due to the “state’s rights” issue, and the state government would not protect the people under Democratic rule, so one must hope for an outside source for the help they needed. Of course, this would not happen as we still have the same two-party system today, but the Populist Party would become a player in the political arena that many African Americans would agree with. This new party was considered the “people’s party,” it was created in 1892 in St. Louis Missouri. For the people, it was made to protect farmers against the overstepping railways, monopolies and corporations to evade the political debates of the corrupt Republican and Democratic two-party system. Many African Americans sided with the People’s party because it was to protect them from the overstepping federal and state governments and …show more content…

In Alabama, the belief behind the convention was to disfranchise so many republicans, that the democratic party would dominate. Rumors said there would be a residency requirement of three years, property, and education attainment to qualify. The Huntsville Gazette’s recommendation would be to require a property qualification for illiterates or anyone who pays taxes on 200 dollars worth of land. Further they argue, “no man without either property or education is a responsible citizen and such a man ought not to be allowed to vote.” So, Long advocates for these requirements of voting but despises Mississippi for trying to disfranchise the people. He thought Mississippi would lead a bloody revolution and was an attempt to write over the fifteenth amendment. The African American paper is a bit contradicting, but it is more worried about the unequal disfranchisement of a race that would follow

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