Black Reconstruction delegates wrote the South’s most democratic constitutions

Evidence

The vote was supposed to make miracles, and in some ways it did. Southern constitutional conventions from 1867 to 1869 were a revolutionary sight to behold. They included northern transplants, southern Republicans, and southern Black delegates, about half of whom had been born in slavery. For all their lack of political experience, wealth, and schooling—or rather because of it—these delegates produced alluringly democratic constitutions. They instituted the South’s first publicly funded educational systems, penitentiaries, orphanages, and insane asylums; expanded women’s rights and guaranteed Black rights; reduced the number of crimes; and reorganized local governments to eliminate dictatorships. Initially, however, Black politicians usually stepped aside when the positions of power were divided up because they did not want to lend credibility to persistent Democratic charges of “black supremacy,” as if the charge had some logic to it. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 668

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with later Jim Crow disenfranchisement — the democratic constitutions were later overturned by racist policy, fitting Kendi’s policy-first frame.
• DEFINE: Illustrates how assimilationist strategy (not wanting to lend credibility to ‘black supremacy’ charges) shaped Black politicians’ self-limiting behavior.