Negro Domination

In 1898, the primary goal of the Democrats became “to restore good government to our beloved state.”  (Item #382, 2)  To accomplish this goal the Democrats targeted what they saw as the root cause of fusionist victory in 1894; namely, “negro domination.”  The problem with fusionism, as they saw it, was that it placed “a proud race, which had never known a master, which had never bent the neck to the yoke of any other race, by the irresistible power of fusion laws and fusion legislation…under the control and domination of that race which ranks lowest, save one, in the human family.” (Item #552)  Furnifold Simmons, a Democratic Chairman,  ranted about the pervasiveness of black power in an editorial for the Raleigh News and Observer:

NEGRO CONGRESSMEN, NEGRO SOLICITORS, NEGRO REVENUE OFFICERS, NEGRO COLLECTORS OF CUSTOMS, NEGROES in charge of white institutions, NEGROES in charge of white schools, NEGROES holding inquests over the white dead, NEGROES controlling the finances of great cities, NEGROES in control of the sanitation and police of cities, NEGRO CONSTABLES arresting white women and white men, NEGRO MAGISTRATES trying white women and white men, white convicts chained to NEGRO CONVICTS and forced to social equality with them, until the proofs rose up, and stood forth "like Pelion on Ossa piled." (Item #552)

Because African Americans made up approximately four-fifths of the Republican Party in 1898, the alliance between Populists and Republicans could be traced back to black power. (Item #423, 34)  “The Republican Party has the negro on its hands, and it has to pay some respect to his wishes,” the Democrats explained.  Furthermore, “to hold the negro solid the party must give him local offices in the counties and towns where he is numerous.  If the party gives him these local offices, then bad government must follow,” the Democrats reasoned with flawed logic. 

The Democrats were not only concerned with black office holders, however.  White political officials who ascended to power on the fusionist ticket also did so because of the black vote.  This, too, constituted a form of negro domination.  Many of the political cartoons in the Democratic-owned and operated newspaper the Raleigh News and Observer demonstrated the Democratic imaginings of fusionism.  In one such cartoon, Governor Daniel Russell is depicted as being upheld by the African American vote and thus to be under black control—“negro domination.” (Item #553)  Only by the Populists’ will to seek patronage positions and the spoils of power could “negro domination” be allowed in North Carolina.  In another, rather explicit, cartoon, a black man is depicted as a vampire, demonically hovering over North Carolina and upheld by the fusionist ticket, demonstrating that the threat of “negro domination” was brought to realization by fusionism.  (Item #329)

The Populist Party attempted to counter attack the Democrats by charging that their notions of “negro domination” were ridiculous.  “The cry of ‘negro supremacy’ and ‘negro domination’ is as absurd as a discussion of racial amalgamation.  Neither is possible,” the Populists argued.  (Item #4)  According to the 1890 census (as reprinted in the Populist Party Handbook), there lived 562,000 “colored” persons to 1,055,000 whites in North Carolina.  (Item #423, 10) The Democratic Handbook corroborates the demography, claiming that African Americans comprised 1/3 of the total population.  “These facts alone make the hysterical cry of ‘nigger supremacy’ by the Democratic party sink into an absurdity and farce too pronounced to permit faithful description,” the Populist charged.  (Item #423, 10)  Furthermore, Democrats did appoint African Americans to county positions when it was in their interests to do so, and manipulated elections to maintain power between 1877 and 1894.  The Populists charged the Democrats with lying about maintaining a respectable government and claimed that their unfounded cries of “negro domination” were “for the purpose of trying to divert the attention of the people from its DIRTY WORK. DO YOU SEE?” (Item #423, 10)

The Populists had a point.  While Democrats attempted to curtail black political power during Reconstruction, they did not suppress it completely and actually attempted to court black support when it was convenient to do so.  In 1872 the Democratic-controlled state legislature attempted to restrict the political power of African Americans by redrawing the map of congressional districts.  (Item #551) It was their intention to concentrate the black vote into one congressional district thereby lessening its power across the state. (Anderson 1981, 3)  Aside from gerrymandering, other mechanism were also implemented to subdue black power, including violence and intimidation, fraud, manipulation, and curtailment of suffrage as with the “Mississippi Plan” of 1875. (Kousser 1974, 14, 16, 38; Hahn 2003, 272, 288) On the other hand, some Democrats, particularly former Whigs and wealthy conservatives, took a cooperationist approach and attempted to garner black support.  In 1876, the Democratic-controlled legislature “set the precedent for appointing negro Justices of the Peace,” and made further black appointments in the Eastern counties.  (Item#423, 7) With high rhetoric of paternalism and inadequate accommodations for black needs, however, they achieved little success in holding onto black support. (Hahn 2003, 199-201) 

The parallels of Democratic attempts to curtail partisan politics along the color-line were not lost to the Populists of 1898.  In the Party Handbook, the Populists argued that the Democrats in the 1890s used the same scare tactics and political manipulation to maintain control of the state apparatus as they did during Reconstruction.  Populists contended that even in counties that were thought to be strongly Democratic, after the enactment of 1895 fusionist legislation (which opened up voter registration to a wider populous) counties such as Davidson, Surry, Watauga, Forsyth, Buncombe, and Gilford voted against the Democratic ticket in the 1896 elections. (Item #423, 6)  This, they stated, demonstrated that Democrats depended upon fraud and manipulation for success because when fair and open elections were held, Democrats lost.  To prove their argument that Democrats appointed black officials in the 1890s when it suited their interests, the Populists reprinted news articles from across the state announcing such appointments; these articles carried titles such as “Democrats help to Elect Negro Policemen,” “Democrats Want Negro Postmasters,” “A Colored Democratic Deputy Sheriff,” and “Democrats Elect Negro School Committemen.” (Item #423, 12-13)  The Democrats, Populists argued, used that rhetoric of “negro supremacy” divert attention away from their own conniving politics and duplicitous stance on black power. 

            The Democrats were not going to submit to Populist recollections of history and logic, however.  To the charge of unfounded cries of “negro domination” the Democrats reemphasized the power blacks held under the fusionist power structure.  They also claimed that while “at present…there is no danger of negro domination throughout the entire state…” due to the disfranchisement of African Americans in other Southern states, “…North Carolina, under republican rule, is the only state in the Union where negro domination is possible.  Who can say,” they questioned, “if Republican rule is to go on in this state, that we are not to have an influx of negroes from other states, drawn here by that condition, and that communities that are now exempt from the dangers of negro domination may not soon be subjected to it?” (Item #382, 40)  They also simply ignored Populist charges of fraud and corruption, sticking to their story that the Democratic Party offered good governance in contrast to that of fusionism.  The Democrats attributed Populist charges of fraud to particular leaders being under “negro domination” and merely discounted them.  They attempted to appeal, instead, to others less persuaded by the Populist Machine.  “We know it is useless to appeal to the white men who hold office by the grace and favor of the negro,” they explained, “but may we not appeal to the manhood, the Anglo-Saxon blood, of the white men all over the State who have not trafficked and traded office with the negro, to unite the white man’s party to uphold white supremacy and to preserve Anglo-Saxon civilization throughout North Carolina?”  (Item #382, 41)