African american Quote by Ron Chernow

“what white Southerners called “redemption” and others deemed simply the return to power of the Democrats, who sufficiently intimidated, cheated and otherwise discouraged Republicans,…

— H.W. Brands

“The great bulk of the legal voters of the South were men who owned no slaves; their homes were generally in the hills and…

— Ulysses S. Grant

“But where Lincoln’s absent hand was felt most keenly was in race relations. Black codes were passed in state after state across the South—as…

— Jay Winik

“While the Reconstruction Era was fraught with corruption and arguably doomed by the lack of land reform, the sweeping economic and political developments in…

— Michelle Alexander

After the Civil War, Black Mississippians had economic power, voting rights, and citizenship. They used their majority to elect African-Americans to office up and…

— Mike Espy

I look forward with hope to increasing the already good feeling between the South andthe other sections of the country. My chief purpose is…

— William Howard Taft

“A generation or so after slavery ended, segregationists enacted Jim Crow laws that made it impossible for most blacks to vote in the South.”

— Patricia T. O'Conner

The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.

— Ida B. Wells

“They all followed Mississippi’s example, instituting race-veiled voting restrictions, from literacy tests to poll taxes, that would purge their voting rolls of the remaining…

— Ibram X. Kendi

Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here…

— Ken Mehlman

“Not a single Southern legislature stood ready to admit a Negro, under any conditions, to the polls; not a single Southern legislature believed free…

— W.E.B. Du Bois

The great bulk of the legal voters of the South were men who owned no slaves; their homes were generally in the hills and…

— Ulysses S. Grant