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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2019 The Origin of Disfranchisement: County Level Resistance to African American VThomtaisn W.g (W iinllia mP) oLosngt-Emancipation Florida Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE ORIGIN OF DISFRANCHISEMENT: COUNTY LEVEL RESISTANCE TO AFRICAN AMERICAN VOTING IN POST - EMANCIPATION FLORIDA By THOMAS W. LONG A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2019 Thomas W. Long defended this thesis on March 29, 2019. The members of the supervisory committee were: Andrew K. Frank Professor Directing Thesis G. Kurt Piehler Committee Member Jonathan Grant Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To William J. Mitchell and Virginia M. Mitchell iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to than the members of my committee for their comments and guidance with special thanks to Dr. Grant for noting the formative strength of institutions. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND HISTORIOGRAPHY ......................................................1 CHAPTER 2: PLANNING THE FACADE... ...............................................................................12 CHAPTER 3: BUILDING THE FACADE ...................................................................................48 CHAPTER 4: COMPLETING THE FACADE .............................................................................68 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................100 References ....................................................................................................................................106 Biographical Sketch .....................................................................................................................110 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Racial Distribution by County (1880) .............................................................................44 Table 2: Vote Distribution by County for Gubernatorial Election (1880) .......................................................................................................44 vi ABSTRACT This thesis examines how divisions among Florida Democrats affected the Democratic Party county organizations’ role in the suppression of African American political participation in Florida. In post-emancipation Florida, white politicians overcame these divisions to create a framework in which the state technically met federal mandates established by the Fourteenth Amendment, while it also ensured that de facto disfranchisement occurred statewide, a constitutional facade. In addition, it explores how this conversation created a government structure that marginalized the concerns of the state’s African American community. Four individuals epitomized the distinctive approaches to the post-Reconstruction political order. Governor David S. Walker represents Florida’s Reconstruction Era lawmakers who met in Tallahassee in 1866. Governor Walker assured legislators that Florida could return to the Union without having ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, but he later told legislators that African American suffrage was “fixed.” Unreconstructed rebels such as A.K. Allison urged violence to stop African American political participation during Reconstruction. Governor William D. Bloxham personifies Democrat officeholders who promised to suppress vigilante violence but appealed for electoral support at a “Clan” rally. Senator Wilkinson Call embodies the racist populism that condemned railroads and African American “lust.” Each of them contributed to the evolution of the Democratic Party county organizations’ role in Florida’s constitutional facade. Florida’s 1865 constitution denied African American suffrage. Florida’s lawmakers could not conceive of it. Governor Walker assured them it would not occur, but he accepted the reality that it had occurred. Allison represents a “boisterous” element of displaced aspiring white elites who violently repressed African American suffrage. Governor Bloxham represents the Democrat establishment that condemned vigilante violence as it relied on the Ku Klux Klan to maintain vii white electoral solidarity. Patronage and paternalism illuminate the tension that existed between the establishment embodied by Governor Bloxham, and the “boisterous” element who aspired to the establishment or sought to reclaim their position in it. Those who had the power to dispense could afford paternalism, whereas those who aspired to that power saw African American political participation as a threat to their ability to distribute patronage. Senator Call’s Confederate background, descent from Governor Richard Keith Call, and anti-railroad populism embodies divisions between the Democrat establishment conservatives who favored railroads and the anti-railroad populists who complained over their land policies, charges, and damage to livestock. Shifting political coalitions of white anti-railroad populists and conservative railroad aligned Democrats bled into county Democrat organizations’ definition of the political as the social to exclude African Americans. Senator Call’ congressional tirade against African American “lust” illuminates the abiding fear that moved Florida to use a denial African Americans social citizenship to deny a political citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Florida’s constitutional facade held: The state had not denied African American suffrage; the Democrat Party, the only relevant political organization, simply chose not to let them participate in primary elections. Senator Call’s tirade over African American “lust” moved disfranchisement’s spirit through the door that joined the political to the social. It completed Florida’s constitutional facade that denied African Americans’ citizenship. Beginning with the constitutional convention that drafted Florida’s 1868 constitution, Democrats used gubernatorial appointments and apportionment to dilute African American political strength. During Reconstruction, a “boisterous” element, such as Allison, violently suppressed African American political participation. While Governor Bloxham vowed to viii suppress vigilante violence, he joined Democrats in courting “Clan” support to turn back an electoral challenge from disaffected Democrats in Florida’s 1884 gubernatorial election. After Florida’s 1885 constitutional convention and anti-railroad legislature had marginalized African American political activity, the push to deny African American political citizenship intensified. County Democrat organizations denied African Americans the right to participate in the only relevant political organization, and the Democratic Party combined their white only rule with a populist anti-business platform. The dominance of the Democratic Party had blurred the social and the political. The exclusion of African Americans from the social organization, the Democratic Party, excluded them from the political. Their political exclusion further separated African Americans from white society. Florida had completed its constitutional facade: African Americans retained the right to vote, but their exclusion from political decision-making made that right meaningless. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND HISTORIOGRAPHY I said that here is a resolution really flew right in the face almost. It was very contrary to every precept that we have professed to believe in so far as the strength of our union is concerned. Well where was the Bar association? The lawyers, who have a responsibility to see a sham or a pretense or something that's fakery, that deals with law, where, where, where were they? I said not a single Bar Association in the State of Florida or the State Bar Association would rise and say to the Legislature this is wrong for you to do. And don’t do this because it's wrong. 1 This thesis argues that Florida’s Reconstruction government’s empowerment of county Democratic Party and government officials shines new light on Florida’s disfranchisement of African Americans. A negotiation over political power between white majority counties and majority African American counties dominated by conservative (Bourbon) Democrats strengthened local Democratic Party and county organizations. 2 County Democratic Party organizations and government officials completed a constitutional facade that Florida had complied with the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendments as it excluded African Americans from political and social citizenship. A struggle among Florida’s white political factions mirrored Reconstruction white political elites’ efforts to restrain aspiring Democratic elites’ violent suppression of African American political participation to preserve their claims to patronage, position, and place. Conservative, Reconstruction Era Democratic lawmakers had used gubernatorial appointments to restrict African American political

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