This Day in Republican History 5/29/06

May 29, 1902 Virginia Democrats implement new state constitution, condemned by Republicans as illegal, reducing African-American voter registration by 86% At the turn of the century, Virginia Democrats, pushed for a state Constitutional Convention for election reforms and a cleansing of the state government. The main goal of the convention was to disfranchise African Americans, Republicans, and illiterate whites without technically violating the United States Constitution. Democrats like State Chairman J. Taylor Ellyson, John Goode (President of the Constitutional Convention), and A.J. Montague (the party's nominee for governor) assured the white electorate that their right to vote would remain undisturbed as they sought to extinguish African-American suffrage. The referendum to hold the convention took place on May 24, 1900. In a special session on February 16, 1901, the General Assembly passed the necessary legislation for the convention. 100 Delegates were selected based on representation in the House of Delegates. The convention meetings began June 21, 1901, and continued for over a year. The major question before the delegation was how to bring about African-American disfranchisement without technically violating the 14th and 15th amendments to the United States Constitution. Raleigh C. Minor from Charlottesville suggested plural voting, granting upstanding white citizens two votes, while African Americans and lower-class whites would receive one. According to Minor, this plan would eliminate the inconvenience of equal suffrage without completely disheartening African Americans. After lengthy debate, the suffrage proposal passed on April 4, 1902, by a vote of 67 to 28. The new Virginia Constitution became law on July 10, 1902. The numbers of both white and African-American voters were significantly reduced.

These weren't slave-era or Reconstruction Democrats. These were 20th century Democrats.