In the history of the United States,carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe allegedly opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War,and were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial,political,and/or social gain. The term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote Republican politics,and individuals who saw business and political opportunities because of the chaotic state of the local economies following the war. In practice,the term carpetbagger often was applied to any Northerners who were present in the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The word is closely associated with scalawag,a similarly pejorative word used to describe native white Southerners who supported the Republican Party-led Reconstruction.
The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During this period,the Democratic Party controlled southern state legislatures and most local,state and federal officeholders in the South were Democrats. During the late 1800s and early 1900s,Southern Democrats disenfranchised nearly all blacks in all the former Confederate states. This resulted in a one-party system,in which a candidate's victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself. White primaries were another means that the Democrats used to consolidate their political power,excluding blacks from voting.
George Henry White was an American attorney and politician,elected as a Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district between 1897 and 1901. He later became a banker in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania and in Whitesboro,New Jersey,an African-American community he co-founded. White was the last African-American Congressman during the beginning of the Jim Crow era and the only African American to serve in Congress during his tenure.
Franklin Israel Moses Jr. was a South Carolina lawyer and editor who became active as a Republican politician in the state during the Reconstruction Era. He was elected to the legislature in 1868 and as governor in 1872,serving into 1874. Enemies labelled him the 'Robber Governor'.
More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy,disenfranchisement,and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states. Historian Canter Brown Jr. noted that in some states,such as Florida,the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The following is a partial list of notable African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900. Dates listed are the year that a term states or the range of years served if multiple terms.
Henry Plummer Cheatham was an educator,farmer and politician,elected as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1889 to 1893 from North Carolina. He was one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South in the Jim Crow era of the last decade of the nineteenth century,as disfranchisement reduced black voting. After that,no African Americans would be elected from the South until 1972 and none from North Carolina until 1992.
Thomas Ezekiel Miller was an American educator,lawyer and politician. After being elected as a state legislator in South Carolina,he was one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South in the Jim Crow era of the last decade of the nineteenth century,as disfranchisement reduced black voting. After that,no African Americans were elected from the South until 1972.
The Red Shirts or Redshirts of the Southern United States were white supremacist paramilitary terrorist groups that were active in the late 19th century in the last years of,and after the end of,the Reconstruction era of the United States. Red Shirt groups originated in Mississippi in 1875,when anti-Reconstruction private terror units adopted red shirts to make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern Republicans,both whites and freedmen. Similar groups in the Carolinas also adopted red shirts.
Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era in the United States,especially in the Southern United States,was based on a series of laws,new constitutions,and practices in the South that were deliberately used to prevent black citizens from registering to vote and voting. These measures were enacted by the former Confederate states at the turn of the 20th century. Efforts were also made in Maryland,Kentucky,and Oklahoma. Their actions were designed to thwart the objective of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,ratified in 1870,which prohibited states from depriving voters of their voting rights based on race. The laws were frequently written in ways to be ostensibly non-racial on paper,but were implemented in ways that selectively suppressed black voters apart from other voters.
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation,"Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. Such laws remained in force until 1965. Formal and informal segregation policies were present in other areas of the United States as well,even as several states outside the South had banned discrimination in public accommodations and voting. Southern laws were enacted by white-dominated state legislatures (Redeemers) to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by African Americans during the Reconstruction era. Such continuing racial segregation was also supported by the successful Lily-white movement.
The civil rights movement (1865–1896) aimed to eliminate racial discrimination against African Americans,improve their educational and employment opportunities,and establish their electoral power,just after the abolition of slavery in the United States. The period from 1865 to 1895 saw a tremendous change in the fortunes of the Black community following the elimination of slavery in the South.
Charles Henry James Taylor (1857–1899),was an American journalist,editor,lawyer,orator,and political organizer. An early supporter of Democratic President Grover Cleveland,he was appointed Minister to Liberia during Cleveland's first presidential term.
James Walker Hood was an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop in North Carolina from 1872 to 1916. Born and raised in Pennsylvania,he moved to New York and became active in the AME Zion church. Well before the Emancipation Proclamation,he was an active abolitionist.
John Sinclair Leary was an American lawyer,politician,federal official,and law school dean. He was of mixed ethnicity. He is described as one of the first black lawyers in North Carolina and was a member of the state legislature from 1868 to 1870. He was an alderman in Fayetteville and later held federal government appointments. He was the first dean of the law school at Shaw University in 1890.
Amos Andre Dodson was an American farmer,teacher,carpenter,newspaperman,public official,and state legislator in Virginia. He represented Mecklenburg County in the Virginia House of Delegates during the 1883-1884 session. He aligned with and helped organize the local Republican and Readjuster political parties.
John E. Hussey was a grocer,boardinghouse owner,and state legislator in North Carolina. He was African-American and represented Craven County in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1885 to 1889.
Aaron R. Bridgers was an American teacher,attorney,and state legislator in North Carolina. An African American and Republican,he represented Edgecombe County in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1883. Bridgers graduated from St. Augustine's College in Raleigh and was a school teacher in Tarboro.
Franklin D. Dancy was a Reconstruction era blacksmith,mayor and politician who served in the North Carolina Senate.
Robert Fletcher (1815-1885) was a Reconstruction era politician in North Carolina who served in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He served his community in other positions including being a sub-elector and a county commissioner.
