Because the vast majority of black southerners were disenfranchised, most historians have overlooked those who engaged in formal political activities from the late nineteenth century through the 1950s. Yet, a small but significant number of black southerners used politics to battle segregation, disfranchisement, violence, and economic exploitation. This book explores how and why black southerners engaged in formal political efforts in the Jim Crow era and argues that their actions constituted a major prong of the long black freedom struggle. They secured improved public services and challen ... More

Because the vast majority of black southerners were disenfranchised, most historians have overlooked those who engaged in formal political activities from the late nineteenth century through the 1950s. Yet, a small but significant number of black southerners used politics to battle segregation, disfranchisement, violence, and economic exploitation. This book explores how and why black southerners engaged in formal political efforts in the Jim Crow era and argues that their actions constituted a major prong of the long black freedom struggle. They secured improved public services and challenged stereotypes of black inferiority. They not only ensured that the Republican Party allowed their political participation and took stands for black civil rights, but they also helped change the Democratic Party to a party that pushed for civil rights. Using Memphis, Tennessee, as a case study, this book shows how black men and women maneuvered for political access and negotiated with white elites, especially with machine boss Edward H. Crump. It focuses in particular on Robert R. Church, Jr., who mobilized black Memphians and emerged as the country's most prominent black Republican in the 1920s. This book concludes that the political activities of black southerners ultimately helped end legal segregation and laid the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of black voters and black public officials in the South, and eventually the election of the nation's first black president.