Rough Tactics

From the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, black southerners influenced local, state, and national politics, and challenged white supremacy by performing at political spectacles. Reformers, Lost Cause advocates, and party leaders employed spectacle to generate enthusiasm, demonstrate the strength of the movement, mobilize voters, legitimize electoral results, and spread their platforms. Before Jim Crow laws and disfranchisement, African Americans played prominent roles in these spectacles as performers, orators, musicians, marchers, and torchbearers. They were part of a robust culture of spectacular politics. At the end of the nineteenth century, white southerners led the movement to disfranchise black voters and eliminate political spectacles, but black and white southerners continued to view spectacle as an important part of the political process. Despite disfranchisement, diminished economic opportunity, and the threat of lynching, African Americans performed a spectrum of behavior with a wide range of effect. Often, they simply participated as spectators, which may have had little effect except reminding white southerners of their shared status as citizens. At times, African Americans exhibited dangerous behavior at political spectacles by harassing white politicians and confronting white women, thus making bold political statements. This study intersperses localized case studies from Atlanta, New Orleans, and Memphis with broader thematic chapters to show how African Americans and spectacle remained an important part of southern politics.