The picture below shows the only AA in attendance at the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890. Isaiah Montgomery is shown on the very bottom to the right. In Mississippi violence at polling places was becoming a normal occurrence. Many AA and whites who supported voting rights for AA were killed. To stop the violence and bring Mississippi under complete legal control of white supremacists, the State of Mississippi held a constitution convention in 1890. Mississippi would be the first state to enact laws requiring a poll tax and a literacy test (understand clause) into its constitution. The constitution also had a good character clause which denied persons the right to vote who were convicted of such crimes as stealing, burglary, arson, gambling, etc. These were the crimes more likely for which AA would be convicted or could be pinned on them. The purpose was to disenfranchise all illiterate voters. But many knew that the real purpose was to disenfranchise AA voters. As James Vardaman, Governor of Mississippi from 1904-08 stated, There is no use to equivocate or lie about the matter, Mississippis Constitution Convention was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the nigger from politics, not the ignorant, but the nigger. Whites warn AA not to interfere with the process. Marsh Cook, a white Republican and in spite of death threats, decided to challenge Democrats for a constitutional convention seat. He was later ambushed and murdered on a lonely country road. The only AA present at the convention was Isaiah Montgomery. He was invited because he was willing to go along and support disenfranchisement of AA. The AA community was outraged at Montgomery and called him a traitor and a Judas. The passage of the new constitution would disenfranchise 12,000 white voters but disenfranchise 123,000 AA voters. The new constitution would be ratified by the state legislature without ever going to the public. Soon other states would adopt similar constitutions.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 07:14:01 +0000