The thesis of this paper is that the evolution of the black vote from Republicanism to the Democratic Party was determined by several causes, and these are the subjects of my paper. Following Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, African Americans in the United States joined the Republican Party and by and large voted for Republican candidates, both in the North and South. Following the end of Reconstruction in 1876, the pressures or renewal of social conservatism, Southern localism, and the re-emergence of so-called “Calhoun” politics, along with main spread interference with African-American voting, all combined to establish the beginnings of a transition from Republican Party affiliation to increasing membership in the Democratic Party.