From “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future” by Robert P. Jones
The mass political violence by white supremacists emboldened whites and frightened Blacks. Over the next few weeks leading up to the 1875 elections, whites engaged in a broad effort to rig the elections, including vigilante violence, voter intimidation, bribery of election officials, and ballot tampering. Despite the mass violence and appeals for federal help by Republican leaders and Black officials, President Ulysses S. Grant refused to intervene. Election Day found many Republican leaders “hiding out in the woods and swamps,” and many Black voters stayed away from the polls in fear for their lives. In Yazoo County, for example, only seven Republican ballots were counted, compared to four thousand Democratic ballots. The result was a landslide Democratic victory statewide, with the party dedicated to restoring white rule securing a four-to-one majority in the state legislature and occupying five of six congressional seats.
The Democratic supermajority moved quickly once seated in the state legislature. One of their first moves was to impeach and remove Lieutenant Governor Alexander K. Davis, who was Black. Then they set their sights on Republican governor Adelbert Ames, demanding that he resign. This cleared the way for John M. Stone, the Democratic president pro tempore of the state senate, to become governor as next in line of succession. With that final move, white supremacy restored its grasp on Mississippi. As Cobb described this watershed moment, “Reconstruction, whose promise of economic, political, and social advancement for Blacks had seemed so genuine only two years before, drew to an abrupt and disappointing close.” It was a disaster for African Americans. Drawing on their Christian faith, whites called the end of Reconstruction “Redemption.”