People, Locations, Episodes

The “Mississippi Plan” Begins

*On this date in 1890, The Mississippi Constitutional Convention began the systematic exclusion of blacks from the politics of the South.

The Mississippi Plan (Literacy and "understanding tests") lasted until November 1st of that year.   Adding the end of Reconstruction, the plan was later adopted with embellishments by other states: South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama (1901), Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), and Oklahoma (1910). Southern states later used "White primaries" and other devices to exclude Black voters.

Once whites regained control of the state legislatures using these tactics, a process known as "Redemption" was implemented.  Here they used gerrymandering of election districts to reduce Black voting strength further and minimize the number of black elected officials.  In the 1890s, these states began to amend their constitutions and enact laws to re-establish and entrench white political supremacy.