Black and Tan Constitution
Fay Mitchell
The Black Caucus. Black and Tan Constitution. Radical Congressional Reconstruction Acts. All of these led to North Carolina in 1868 enacting some of the most progressive legislation in the state’s history. It would not last.
There was a contentious peace at the end of the Civil War, as the battle was waged on new fronts. Key among issues was how the state would be governed and by whom. North Carolina-born President Andrew Johnson did not want full citizenship and civil rights for the formerly enslaved. Congress did, and over Johnson’s veto passed the Radical Congressional Reconstruction Acts that placed southern states, except Tennessee, under military control.
Many former Confederates lost elected offices, lost the right to vote and southern states were ordered to revise their constitutions to give black men the vote. In compliance with the Congressional mandate, a constitutional convention was held in 1868 in Raleigh. The newly formed Republican Party promoted the convention. The largely dissolved white supremacist Democrat party had evolved into the fragile Conservative Party and did not mount significant opposition. Whites still outnumbered Blacks two to one in North Carolina, but the freedmen were willing to take a chance on solidarity with white Republicans. Of the 120 convention delegates, 107 were Republicans and 15 were Black.
The formerly powerful Democrats derisively called the convention the ‘Black Caucus” yielding a “Black and Tan Constitution” formed by Carpetbaggers (northern born whites), scalawags (southern white unionists) and the formerly enslaved or free men of color. The black populace was hopeful. The former Confederates were bitter. Whites who had been elected to Congress could not be seated because they had been disloyal to the Union and freedmen has been mistreated. Southern states were required to uphold the 13th Amendment and abolish slavery to be readmitted to the United States. Furthermore, the former Confederates had to sign loyalty oaths. The racist laws they had enacted at the wars end, called Black Codes, that prohibited blacks from voting, serving on juries, marrying whites, and other restrictions, all were nullified.
The resulting North Carolina Constitution of 1868 gave all men the right to vote, abolished high property qualifications as a prerequisite for office holding, provided for the election of judges for eight year terms, and created elected county governments of commissioners to replace the appointment of a wealthy white elite to control local affairs. The governor’s term was extended from two to four years.
A modern system of tax-supported public schools was created, which gave rise to enormous white opposition to integrated schools and led to the creation of separate school systems. Some nonpolitical rights were extended to women. Additionally, North Carolina elected more than 30 African American state legislators and one U.S. Congressman.
In 1870, shortly after the convention, Republicans swept the state’s elections, winning the governorship, all but one congressional district, and more than two thirds of the legislature. Republicans also dominated county elections, Blacks among them. There was a violent reaction to biracial government giving birth to secret societies, including the Ku Klux Klan, often headed by the former Democrat elite. A propaganda campaign and racial suppression yielded an election of regression in 1876. The dream of a fairer, more equal North Carolina was shattered, as it was across the south. In less than 10 years, the political rights and the right to vote won by blacks were erased. The Reconstruction Period ended in 1877.
