Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1909. / Bibliography: p. 61-68.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1909. / Bibliography: p. 61-68.

By the end of the Civil War in 1865 Indiana's Republicans were faced with a crucial dilemma. Republican Moderates were urging party rank and file to support a constitutional amendmdnt to change the basis of apportionment in the House of Representatives so that the South would not gain more seats by reason of the fact that the emancipation of the four million slaves had rendered the three-fifths compromise null and void. In other words, the Moderates were acutely aware that the South would now be able to count all of its black population for the purpose of apportionment in the House, and that this increase would also be reflected in the electoral college. The Radical Republicans, on the other hand, were urging the enfranchisement of southern Negroes because they felt that the creation of a voting block of loyal blacks would be the most practical way to offset the South's increased representation. The Radicals also believed enfranchisement was needed to protect the civil rights of thousands of uneducated and largely illiterate southern blacks.The Negro suffrage issue was particularly explosive in Indiana where white prejudice was of sufficient strength to make Indiana's Republicans fearful of a white backlash for enfranchising southern blacks. The way in which Indiana's Republican legislators reacted toward their party's dilemma was determined by studying votes in both the General Assembly and in the House of Representatives. Also evaluated were the speeches of the leading Republican and Democratic politicians in the state, newspaper editorials, private manuscripts, and the results of the 1866 nominating conventions and the general election in Indiana.From this study these conclusions emerged:1. President Andrew Johnson was partially to blame for the 1867 Reconstruction Act which imposed Negro suffrage and military occupation on the South because he encouraged a splinter political movement that forced Indiana's Republicans to resort to extreme measures as a means of self-protection.2. Indiana's Democrats must also accept part of the blame for reconstruction measures that after 1867 proved to be vindictive because their virulent Negrophobia helped to prevent any compromise with Republicans where the future of the black man was concerned.3. The study of Republican roll call votes in the House of Representatives (1863-1867) made by David Donald and published as The Politics of Reconstruction, (1965) was incomplete because Donald measured Republican Radicalism largely on the basis of votes in the second session of the 39th Congress rather than on those of the first session when the Negro suffrage issue clearly marked the demarcation line between Radicals and Moderates.4. The 1866 election in Indiana was not so much monopolized by claptrap issues raised by Republicans, as contended by Howard K. Beale in The Critical Year (1930), as by Democratic charges that Republicans were seeking racial equality.5. Indiana's Republicans did not favor Negro suffrage until the South had rejected the Fourteenth Amendment and President Johnson had failed to provide guarantees that the ex-Confederate states would not be restored to the Union with their representation and electoral votes increased.

M.A. Florida State College for Women 1927 / Includes bibliographical references

The idea that Blacks were the prominent force in Southern governments during Reconstruction has been the theme of a number of Southern Whites and others who had sympathy for the South. They have emphasized this view so long that it has almost become an established fact. They have also pounced upon the weaknesses of a number of Black politicians of this period, labeling these men as "not fit to hold political positions." This writer has proven that not all of these men were unqualified as office holders through the life and career of John R. Lynch. The background and accomplishments of Lynch denies the "not fit to hold political positions" idea.Since there is little published on John R. Lynch apart from general histories of other prominent Black leaders of this period, the purpose of this study was to examine the life of John R. Lynch, the impact he had on Reconstruction and selected American historians' views of Lynch and Reconstruction. This writer did this study in hopes that an examination of the life of Lynch might serve to provide a more balanced account of the part played by Black office holders of that period.The research showed that Lynch was a significant political leader in post-Civil War Mississippi and in the United States Congress and that his contemporaries, Black and White, recognized his competence and his honesty. However, this record has remained obscure since no historian, White or Black, with the exception of John Hope Franklin, has selected Lynch as a major topic of historical research. While a number of historians have mentioned Lynch in their writings, none have given him full credit for his accomplishment. White historians such as James Ford Rhodes, John W. Burgess and William A. Dunning omitted him in their justification of White treatment of Blacks during Reconstruction. Black historians proved almost as neglectful in their lack of treatment.

No description available.

No description available.

The key to Reconstruction for both blacks and whites was black suffrage. On one hand this vote made possible the elevation of black political leaders to positions of prominence in the reorganization of the South after the Civil War. For southern whites, on the other hand, black participation in the Reconstruction governments discredited the positive accomplishments of those regimes and led to the evolution of a systematized white rejection of the black as a positive force in southern politics. For white contemporaries and subsequent historians, the black political leader became the exemplar of all that was reprehensible about the period. Stereotyped patterns, developed to eliminate black influence, prevented any examination of the actual role played by these men in the reconstruction process. This study is partially a synthesis of recent scholarly research on specific aspects of the black political role and the careers of individual political leaders. Additional research included examination of a number of manuscript collections in the Library of Congress and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, state and federal government documents, and contemporary newspapers. On the basis of all these sources, this study evaluates the nature of black political leadership and its impact on the reconstruction process in all the ten states which were subject to the provisions of congressional reconstruction legislation. The topic is developed chronologically, beginning with the status of blacks at the end of the Civil War and their search for identity as citizens. Black leadership emerged early in the various rallies and black conventions of 1865 and early 1866. With the passage in March 1867 of reconstruction legislation establishing black suffrage as the basis for restoration of the former Confederate states, black leaders played a crucial role in the development of the southern Republican party and the registration of black voters. Black influence reached its apex in the constitutional conventions and the subsequent ratification elections of 1868-1869. Blacks were elected to posts in the new state governments in varying numbers, but with increasing political sophistication began to demand a larger voice in Republican party councils and a larger share of public offices. Their resulting prominence fueled a white determination to eliminate the Republican governments which had allowed elevation of black politicians. This study of state political leadership is not a history of the black in the Republican party, nor is it a history of the black masses in Reconstruction. It does examine the role of black leaders and seeks to determine the nature and degree of their influence. The development of black leadership was one facet of building a southern Republican party, and in the tenuous coalition which made up that party the black inevitably became the weakest link because he was the most vulnerable. This study challenges a number of stereotypes. Southern Reconstruction was not a period of "black rule," as both historians hostile to the black leaders and those sympathetic to them have intimated. Nor was the black politician a passive tool to be manipulated at the will of whites. Strong disagreements among black leaders show the weakness of the traditional monolithic picture of black political action. Black leaders had considerable influence in some states and practically none in others. Total failure of black political leadership would have been welcomed by southern whites, but its successes were intolerable. This study traces the development of a leadership whose successes led to its destruction.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / Bibliography: leaves 353-361. / Ph.D.

"The theme of this work centers around the Negro and his association with the Radical Republican party. For eight years this party controlled the state government of Texas and, the Negro's participation during this period cannot be overlooked. The Negro possessed, at this time, two valuable assets, the right of suffrage and a strength in numbers. It was through the careful coordination of these two assets that the Radicals were able to gain and maintain control of Texas politics."--Leaves iii-iv.