Okla-homey
2/25/2007, 09:20 AM
Feb 25, 1870 : A black congressman is sworn in
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6001/rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr465pxvb7.jpg
Hiram R. Revels
137 years ago, on this day in 1870, Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first black man ever to sit in Congress.
During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped form "colored" army regiments for the Union cause, started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the former Confederate state after the war and entered into Reconstruction-era Southern politics.
In 1867, the first Reconstruction Act was passed by a Republican-dominated U.S. Congress, dividing the South into five military districts and granting suffrage to all male citizens, regardless of race.
A politically mobilized black community joined with white allies in the Southern states to elect the Republican party to power, which in turn brought about radical changes across the South.
By 1870, all the former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union, and most were controlled by the Republican Party, thanks in large part to the support of their new black voters.
On January 20, 1870, Hiram R. Revels was elected by the Mississippi legislature to fill the Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. On February 25, two days after Mississippi was granted representation in Congress for the first time since it seceded in 1861, Revels was sworn in.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9638/rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr30sq6.jpg
Political cartoon depicting Jefferson Davis skulking out of the Senate after being replaced by Rhoads. Davis is depicted wearing a ladies shawl because it was widely rumored (probably falsely) when he was captured by Federal forces during the Confederate government's flight from Richmond in the closing moments of the Civil War President Davis was disguised in drag.
Although black Republicans never obtained political office in proportion to their overwhelming electoral majority, Revels and some 15 other black men served in Congress during Reconstruction, more than 600 served in state legislatures, and hundreds of blacks held local offices.
Eventually, as re-enfranchised white former Confederates regained power in the several Southern state governments, they passed various state laws which had the effect of denying blacks the vote. These included literacy tests, poll taxes, and also "grandfather clauses" that permitted otherwise disqualified voters whose grandfathers voted (thus allowing some white illiterates) the vote.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/343/rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrko9.jpg
All of these manifestations of "states rights" had the aim and effect of re-imposing racially motivated restrictions on the voting process that prevented blacks from having political and economic power. The practical effect of these laws meant that although the Fifteenth Amendment established particular voting rights, and gave Congress the authority to enforce those rights and regulate the voting process, the vote was effectively denied most Southern blacks throughout the U.S., from the the post-Reconstruction era which began in 1870 and continuing through the 1960s.
Fairly or not, the GOP "lost" black folks during the modern civil rights movement when they became convinced the Republican party had become the refuge of white folks opposed to the aims of the movement.
As an side, your correspondent humbly suggests that the enmity black folks feel for Confederate images, especially the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the rectangular version used by certain Confederate corps in the Army of Tennessee, and the CS naval jack, is due mostly to the fact these images were ominipresent among the folks who fought unsuccessfully to deny black folks equal rights in the 1950's and 1960's.
Put another way, these images were "hijacked" and "bootstrapped" into use by folks who had no real regard for their historic significance and did not revere them as banners under which patriots fought and died for their country. That ilk merely used them as symbols to inflame passions.
IMHO, they should be ashamed of themselves, and I can quite understand why black folks don't wish to have those images waved in their presence. That said, this is still America, and we all have a right to free expression, so such private flag waving should never be enjoined. Flying those flags from public buildings however, is another kettle of fish and not so easily resolved.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7974/insane7zoso8.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6001/rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr465pxvb7.jpg
Hiram R. Revels
137 years ago, on this day in 1870, Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first black man ever to sit in Congress.
During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped form "colored" army regiments for the Union cause, started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the former Confederate state after the war and entered into Reconstruction-era Southern politics.
In 1867, the first Reconstruction Act was passed by a Republican-dominated U.S. Congress, dividing the South into five military districts and granting suffrage to all male citizens, regardless of race.
A politically mobilized black community joined with white allies in the Southern states to elect the Republican party to power, which in turn brought about radical changes across the South.
By 1870, all the former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union, and most were controlled by the Republican Party, thanks in large part to the support of their new black voters.
On January 20, 1870, Hiram R. Revels was elected by the Mississippi legislature to fill the Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. On February 25, two days after Mississippi was granted representation in Congress for the first time since it seceded in 1861, Revels was sworn in.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9638/rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr30sq6.jpg
Political cartoon depicting Jefferson Davis skulking out of the Senate after being replaced by Rhoads. Davis is depicted wearing a ladies shawl because it was widely rumored (probably falsely) when he was captured by Federal forces during the Confederate government's flight from Richmond in the closing moments of the Civil War President Davis was disguised in drag.
Although black Republicans never obtained political office in proportion to their overwhelming electoral majority, Revels and some 15 other black men served in Congress during Reconstruction, more than 600 served in state legislatures, and hundreds of blacks held local offices.
Eventually, as re-enfranchised white former Confederates regained power in the several Southern state governments, they passed various state laws which had the effect of denying blacks the vote. These included literacy tests, poll taxes, and also "grandfather clauses" that permitted otherwise disqualified voters whose grandfathers voted (thus allowing some white illiterates) the vote.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/343/rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrko9.jpg
All of these manifestations of "states rights" had the aim and effect of re-imposing racially motivated restrictions on the voting process that prevented blacks from having political and economic power. The practical effect of these laws meant that although the Fifteenth Amendment established particular voting rights, and gave Congress the authority to enforce those rights and regulate the voting process, the vote was effectively denied most Southern blacks throughout the U.S., from the the post-Reconstruction era which began in 1870 and continuing through the 1960s.
Fairly or not, the GOP "lost" black folks during the modern civil rights movement when they became convinced the Republican party had become the refuge of white folks opposed to the aims of the movement.
As an side, your correspondent humbly suggests that the enmity black folks feel for Confederate images, especially the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the rectangular version used by certain Confederate corps in the Army of Tennessee, and the CS naval jack, is due mostly to the fact these images were ominipresent among the folks who fought unsuccessfully to deny black folks equal rights in the 1950's and 1960's.
Put another way, these images were "hijacked" and "bootstrapped" into use by folks who had no real regard for their historic significance and did not revere them as banners under which patriots fought and died for their country. That ilk merely used them as symbols to inflame passions.
IMHO, they should be ashamed of themselves, and I can quite understand why black folks don't wish to have those images waved in their presence. That said, this is still America, and we all have a right to free expression, so such private flag waving should never be enjoined. Flying those flags from public buildings however, is another kettle of fish and not so easily resolved.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7974/insane7zoso8.jpg