The Most important Presidential Election (part 3)

How black America lost 100 years of progress

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This election changed the trajectory of Black America that doesn’t get discussed enough! I would believe that after reading this you may be taken aback that how come we were never briefed about this in full by our education system. If you are aware of it you will just shake your head yeah! If you do not know of it then you do not truly understand what is called Black history in America! I am stating that this election is the single most important issue on why blacks are economically deficient! You can’t lose a hundred years and expect to have made progression. This is excerpt from my 2025 book American Dream the Next Generation.

This election I will state here is the defining presidential race in United States history! Drums please………. It is the 1876 election: Rutherford Hayes (Republican) versus Samuel Tilden (Democrat). Now why doesn’t it get discussed? This election set up a whiplash of hate and destitution that gets purposely lost by historians I will state or better put misinterpreted! According to www.history.com the 1876 election tested the Constitution and effectively ended what is called ‘Reconstruction Era’.

The Reconstruction era lasted from 1865 -1877. It is the historic period in which the United States attempted to answer the question of how to integrate millions of freed blacks into the social, political, and labor systems. It was to bring the southern states back into the Union by guaranteeing rights to former slaves. It was a time to get whites and blacks to get use to there new relationship! Reconstruction faced ongoing and systemic violent opposition in the south and a retreat from what was considered the northern way of life. The use of southern white intimidation was rampant. Reconstruction was to recognize the built in inequities of slavery and its political, social and economic legacy to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that has seceded. The black codes and Jim Crow were established that would breakdown Reconstruction which led to what has been labeled the ‘Redemption Era’ by historians. Also in 1874 the Democrats had taken back over the House for the first time in many years.

Samuel Tilden the Democrat had emerged with a lead in the popular vote, but 19 electoral votes were in dispute which led to the U.S Congress intervening. At the time Reconstruction was dwindling across the nation. However, the Republicans had dominated the Federal Government for the decade after Civil War ended thanks in part to thousands of newly enfranchised black men who were called negro at the time. The Congressional Reconstruction policies resulted in biracial governments across the south by the early 1870’s.

A severe economic downturn plunged the country into a severe depression! This created widespread unemployment and plummeting cotton prices that hampered the south’s postwar economy. The President Republican Ulysses S. Grant administration had many corruption scandals which assisted with Democrats winning back the House for the first time since the war. Those Democrats wanted Reconstruction dismantled! The Democrats were the political party that championed slavery! What is usually not discussed also was that racism was rampant in the northern states as well. The northerners began to blame reconstruction on the supposed inferiority of black voters! Those northerners were called #Copperheads.

Key decisions by the U.S Supreme Court struck at the protections afforded by the reconstruction era constitutional amendments and legislation. The slaughterhouse cases (1873) established the 14th amendment only applied to formerly enslaved people and protected only former enslaved people and protected only rights granted by the federal government, not by the states. A critical case in 1876 was the United States versus Cruikshank, the Supreme Court overturned the convictions of three white men convicted in the connection with the massacre of more than 100 black men in Colfax, Louisiana in 1873, as part of a political dispute. The men had been convicted of violating the ‘'1870 Enforcement Act’ which banned conspiracies to deny citizens constitutional rights and had been intended to combat violence by the Ku Klux Klan against the negro especially in the south.

In 1876 when the nation went to the polls, Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden Governor of New York state emerged with a lead of 260,000 popular votes. However, on the flipside Tilden had only amassed 184 electoral votes. He needed 185 votes to win. Returns from three states Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina were in dispute, both sides were claiming victory. Together , the states represented 19 electoral votes, which along with one disputed elector from Oregon would be enough to swing the election Hayes way. The Constitution provided no way of resolving the dispute. The U.S Congress would decide. The Democrats controlled the House. The Republicans controlled the Senate dominantly. The two sides compromised by creating a bipartisan electoral commission with five House members, five Senate members , and five Supreme Court Justices. The commission was supposed to be comprised of seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and one independent - Supreme Court Justice David Davis who ended up dropping out when offered a Senate seat and a Republican was named to replace him. After series of votes along party lines, the commission awarded Hayes all three of the contested states in March 1877 making Hayes the winner.

******************** The backroom deal******************

Eric Foner recounts in his book Forever Free: the story of Emancipation, and Reconstruction, Hayes had pledged in his acceptance of the nomination to ‘bring the blessings of honest and capable’ local self government to the South if elected - a statement that could be taken as code for ending reconstruction. In fact, even as the electoral commission deliberated national party leaders had been meeting in secret to hash out what would become known as the ‘Compromise of 1877’. Hayes agreed to cede control of the south to democratic governments and back away from attempts at federal intervention in the region, as well as place a southerner in the cabinet. In return, Democrats would not dispute Hayes election and agreed to respect the civil rights of negroes. After the inauguration, Hayes made good on his promise, ordering Federal troops to withdraw from Louisiana, and South Carolina where they had been protecting Republican claimants to the governorships in those states. That was the beginning of the end of Reconstruction era.

From the historical record the white Southern Democrats didn’t honor their part of the deal to uphold the rights of the negroes who were now citizens not slaves but were still considered slaves and inferior by many! The whites moved quickly to reverse as many Reconstruction policies as possible. This started nine decades of disenfranchisements of Black voters and Blacks in the south but essentially in the whole country. This led to a reprehensible intimidation and daily violence that were codified by the Jim crow laws. I am stating that is the hundred years lost. Now you can see why blacks are historically at the bottom of the economic pole in America to this day. It is embedded in the fabric of America. It is not an accident. It is not the natural way! It is planned and scripted which has now become a way of life that the inhabitants think is natural selection. The end of series Black history month columns.

#ObservationReporter

Disclaimer: Absolutely no A.I utilized here. Only H.I aka human intuitiveness

There is love or hate…..your choice. There is fear or freedom…..your choice.

Now what will your mind allow you to do.