Disenfranchisement of the Negro in the South

Report Outline
Early History of Negro Suffrage
Restoration of “White Supremacy” in South
The Present Situation in the South

When the Senate Judiciary Committee reported a resolution during the closing days of the last Congress for a recess investigation of the barter and sale of federal offices in the South, a substitute resolution was offered in a minority report by Senator Ernst, Rep., Kentucky, proposing that a simultaneous inquiry be made into charges that “in some of the States where such practices are reported there is a denial to many citizens of their right to vote or to have their votes counted.”

“This last resolution was offered as a substitute,” Senator Ernst said, “not because I approved of the proposed investigation but because I believe that if an investigation must be made of the actions of officers of political party organizations with respect to the barter and sale of offices, there can be no good reason why investigation should not at the same time in all fairness be made to ascertain whether or not officials of party organizations, or others in the States which may be investigated, are denying to citizens of such States the right to vote and to have their votes counted. The right to hold office and the right to vote are inseparable and if one charge is to be investigated a refusal to investigate the other is discriminatory and indefensible.”

Senator Norris, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, agreed that both sets of charges should be investigated, but believed the investigations should be made by separate committees. He intimated that the attempt in the Judiciary Committee to amend the resolution to authorize an investigation of the denial of the franchise to negroes in the South had been intended to block the patronage investigation by depriving it of the support of Southern senators. With two resolutions reported, one by a majority and one by a minority of the Judiciary Committee, he said, the Senate would have an opportunity of choosing between them.