White Southern violence against Black voters backfired by driving Republicans to power

Evidence

A white mob consisting of many Confederate veterans attacks protesters outside a convention in New Orleans, which has been called by Republican leaders in response to the state legislature’s passage of a law denying African Americans the right to vote. Among those killed in the ensuing violence is Anthony Paul Dostie, a white abolitionist who led the march on the convention. The mob also kills more than thirty-five other people, mostly Black men. National outrage over the violence helps lead to Republicans gaining control of both houses of Congress in that year’s midterm elections. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 762

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ dynamic — backlash against overreach consolidating the opposing coalition; also connects to the book’s running theme of Reconstruction-era white terrorism as founded by ex-Confederate veterans. — connects to: Admitted states gave Republicans a lasting Senate majority core.; Talmadge’s white-supremacist campaign rhetoric directly incited lethal violence against newly enfranchised black voters. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 61