Black History

Why The 2020 Election Is Being Compared to Elections After The Civil War

Published

4 years ago

October 25, 2020

Historians and political scientists are turning to the past to frame the discussion about the more than 50 million Americans who have already voted before Election Day, many of whom have stood in line for hours. Media outlets are comparing an obviously energized electorate to the percentage of voters who participated in the elections after the Civil War, but at least one political scientist, Dr. Sekou Franklin of Middle Tennessee State, hesitates to compare the percentages of voter turnout.

“It’s much easier to make that conclusion if the voter eligible population is very narrow and much smaller,” says Franklin. “So, I’m very reluctant to do century-to-century or regional comparisons when the number of eligible voters was much narrower than today.”

According to USA Today, the nation “saw the highest eligible voter turnout rate, 82.6%, in 1876, when Republican Rutherford Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel Tilden. In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas, 81.8% of eligible voters turned out.”

And voter turnout climbed above 80% in at least four other elections in the 1800s.

Why So High

With the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, newly freed slaves embraced their right to vote. Before the passage of the Amendment in 1869 granting Black men the right to vote, voting rights advocates questioned the logic behind disenfranchisement and pushed for the inclusion of Black men.

Delegates attending the 1864 National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, New York asked, “Are we good enough to use bullets, and not good enough to use ballots?”

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass attended the Convention and said, “We are here to promote the freedom, progress, elevation, and perfect enfranchisement, of the entire colored people of the United States; to show that, though slaves, we are not contented slaves, but that, like all other progressive races of men, we are resolved to advance in the scale of knowledge , worth, and civilization, and claim our rights as men among men.”

And there was Congressional assistance in the effort. In 1867, Republicans in Congress passed a series of Reconstruction Acts, overriding President Johnson’s veto. The first act required former Confederate states to form new governments that enfranchised all “male citizens…twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition” before they could be readmitted to the Union.

The next election saw Black men finally allowed to participate at the polls which explains, in part, the high turnout numbers in 1868, 1872, and 1876.

Franklin points to the impact of what some historians call “the squeeze” or in his words, “white voters in the South who were still committed to the Confederate Cause.”

And he describes the 1876 election as “full of fraud and voter intimidation, particularly talking about African American voters.”

It was the 1877 Compromise when newly elected Republican President Hayes struck a deal to clinch the White House which included removing federal troops from southern states that ushered in the end of Reconstruction.

More than a century after that fateful 1876 election, Franklin cites the issues of today as offering the most striking historical parallels.

“Those were elections in which race and federalism were at the front and center,” he says. “And so I think, if you were to look at the election today and what may be animating in the electorate, on the one hand, you have Black and Latinx voters, perhaps…at least Black voters, some Latinx…and still a pretty dogmatic, white racial grievance that’s gravitated towards Trump. That those things are animated in that election as they were animating in the election in the late 19th century.”

Black History

Formerly All-Black School in Arkansas Works to Restore Campus

Published

3 days ago

December 18, 2024

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In Arkansas a formerly all-Black school, Ouachita County Training School, has launched a national fundraising effort to restore the campus following its designation as a site on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the first corporate donations to OCTS, located in Bearden, Arkansas, came from the Katherine Anthony Foundation.

Anthony’s nephew, Steve, and CEO of Anthony Timberlands, presented a $10,000 check to the historic committee.

“We are happy to support the work of the Greater Bradley District Association and the Ouachita County Training School committee in their efforts to maintain the infrastructure and grounds of the training school, which is such an important part of the Bearden community,” Anthony said.

The National Park Service listed OCTS on the prestigious register in 2023.

“Since we received the news, we have been excited and motivated to raise the fund necessary to preserve this part of our history!” Virginia Ashley, committee president said. “We recognize the pivotal role OCTS played in educating several generations of young people who started right here and went on to contribute greatly to the Black middle class and the world.”

The gift of education

For education advocates, December holds a special place in American history. During the Christmas Season in 1952, the Supreme Court first heard arguments to eliminate segregation in the nation’s public schools. But, it took two more years before the Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring segregation unconstitutional.

During the 1950s, OCTS educated Black students in the small southern town south of Little Rock, which became known internationally for The Little Rock Nine and their efforts to integrate Central High School. In Bearden, several Rosenwald Schools had consolidated to create the larger OCTS campus that educated students from the first through the 12^th grades.

“I have such wonderful memories of my days as a student at OCTS,” recalled Pearlie Newton, a retired educator and executive director of the OCTS historic committee. “My dad helped pour concrete at the campus, my husband and I met there and it was in one of the classrooms that my goal to become an educator took shape.”

Despite the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision eliminating “separate but equal” schools, OCTS remained segregated until 1971 when it merged with the white school district in the area. An association of Black Baptist churches known as the Greater Bradley District Association purchased the campus for use as its headquarters.

Pastor and Association Moderator, Verna Thompson, said, “We are excited about the renovation and look forward to holding our church services and meetings in a modernized facility that holds so much historic significance.”

Black History

America Heads Into the Last Mile of the 2024 Presidential Election

Published

2 months ago

October 29, 2024

LoveBlackHistory

With only a week until Election Day, Vice-President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are holding their final campaign rallies and crisscrossing the battleground states. Both candidates know the importance of every vote, and they are rallying their base in the closing days.

Vickie Newton, founder of The Village Celebration and Love Black History, traces the history of Black voters in America on the eve of the historic 2024 presidential election.

Black History

Coco Gauff Becomes the Youngest Flag Bearer in US Olympic History

Published

5 months ago

July 25, 2024

LoveBlackHistory

During the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, the female American flag bearer will be Coco Gauff, the 20-year-old tennis star. She will be the youngest flag bearer in American Olympic history. Basketball legend LeBron James has been selected as the male flag bearer.

Gauff said, “I was not expecting that.”

Delighted to be selected, Gauff admitted she has “no idea” what her assignment includes, adding, “I don’t know if there’s flag bearer-training I have to go to.”

James has been to the Olympics four times. He was part of U.S. teams that won bronze in 2004, gold at Beijing in 2008 and gold again in London in 2012.

But this will be his first time as the flag bearer.

He said, “It’s an absolute honor. I hope I continue to make my community proud and continue to make my family proud.”