On January 5, 1975, white redeemers held a convention that marked the initial step to use violence, terror and fraud to overthrow Mississippi’s democratically elected government. Their coordinated effort came to be known as the Mississippi Plan and it set the precedent in how to overthrow democracy and end reconstruction.
The Plan was a systematic initiative aimed at dismantling biracial democracy permanently in the Deep South, focusing on the suppression of the Black vote, meticulously designed and refined by the Democratic Party leaders in the Magnolia State
Influential figures such as United States Senator James Z. George, United States Representative Lucius Q. C. Lamar, and Ethelbert Barksdale, editor of Mississippi’s Clarion and prominent planters, coordinateda calculated and systematic attack on the state’s Republican administration along with its African American supporters, all while leading the Democratic Party in Mississippi.
- H. Chalmers, a manager of the Mississippi Plan, expressed the motivation behind the scheme: “The white race, who had made America what it is, and who are regarded by foreign nations as constituting the American people, have twice, if not thrice, been by Negro suffrage, denied the rulers of their choice.” In 1876, Chalmers would become a member of the Mississippi Supreme Court.
As the late summer transitioned into early fall of 1875, Democratic paramilitary groups, called rifle clubs, commenced a deliberate a series of strategic and violent demonstrations throughout Central Mississippi. In Vicksburg, the city’s White Liners, vigilantly patrolled the streets around the clock, stopping black men as they walked and, on occasion, resorting to gunfire against them. In Yazoo City, a rifle club stormed a Republican club meeting, opened fire, and orchestrated a coup against Republican sheriff Albert T. Morgan.
On September 4, 1875, a white mob attacked a Republican campaign rally, killing 5 Black attendees, including 2 children. But it didn’t stop there. Over the next week, White gangs traversed western Hinds County, indiscreetly killing Black residents. At the end, the mob murdered nearly 50 people.
Clinton was not a one off. That year, White supremacist targeted Black led political events in Natchez, Columbus, Friars Point, Yazoo City and other small towns where Black peopled dared to exercise their rights to free speech.
Violence and intimidation were the theme on election For instance, at Forest, Mississippi, it was orchestrated for mobs wielding whips to abruptly charge into the crowds of African Americans. Rifle clubs assembled outside polling locations in Natchez and Columbus, daring Black men to enter.
The Democrats secured a substantial majority in the legislature, selected four out of six Congressmen, and successfully elected almost all county officials. In Yazoo City, for example, the Republican vote in 1873 stood at 2,427, while in 1875, it dramatically plummeted to just 7.
White Democrats took control of the Legislature and courts. The next year they would impeach the Black Lt. Governor, Alexander Davis. They would then pressure the White Republican Governor, Adelbert Ames, to resign and leave Mississippi to avoid arrest and prosecution.
In 1875, White “redeemers” paved the road to Mississippi’s unashamedly racist 1890 constitution, poll taxes, and segregation. Nine Black men served in the House in 1888, six in 1890, and two in 1892 and 1894. There would not be another African American elected to the Mississippi state legislature until Robert G. Clark Jr. won his historic election in 1968.