Conclusion

The passage of the Suffrage Amendment in 1900 represented a significant victory for the North Carolina Democratic Party. They had removed a significant block of opposition voters, overturned the last vestiges of Congressional Reconstruction, and established themselves as the dominant power in the state. The Democrats were not the only party that attempted to use race as a weapon during the campaign but they ultimately proved to wield white supremacist ideology more successfully than their opponents. The Republicans’ connections with African American voters and the Populists connection to the Republicans allowed the Democrats to define themselves as the “white man’s party” and despite their best efforts, the Fusionists were unable to find an answer to the Democrats’ platform.