"We did not disfranchise the negroes until 1895. Then we had a constitutional convention convened which took the matter up calmly, deliberately, and avowedly with the purpose of disfranchising as many of them as we could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. We adopted the educational qualification as the only means left to us, and the negro is as contented and as prosperous and as well protected in South Carolina to-day as in any State of the Union south of the Potomac. He is not meddling with politics, for he found that the more he meddled with them the worse off he got. As to his "rights"—I will not discuss them now."
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Democratic Party (United States) politiciansMembers of the United States SenatePoliticians from South CarolinaWhite supremacistsGovernors of South Carolina
Original Language: English
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Speech to the United States Senate (23 March 1900).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tillman
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Benjamin Tillman
Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Jr. (11 August 1847 – 3 July 1918) was a politician of the Democratic Party who was Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and a United States Senator from 1895 until his death. A white supremacist who often spoke out against black people, Tillman led a paramilitary group of [[w:Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Sh
21 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Benjamin Tillman →
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