Discussing Democracy, part 1

In recognition of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 15th Amendment—and the 100th of the 19th Amendment—I’m planning on posting an episodic series of blog entries about voting and politicians this year.

1870 Lithograph, Library of Congress https://lccn.loc.gov/93510386

One hundred and fifty years ago, the 15th Amendment passed. It declared “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”  

15th amendment lithograph  https://lccn.loc.gov/2003690774, courtesy of Library of Congress

Thousands of people in New Hanover County celebrated when the 15th Amendment passed.  Our community organized a parade and festivities on May 2, 1870.  A local paper declared the it “The Day of Jubilee!”

The Wilmington Post’s account of the celebration noted that a crowd gathered early, and heard white and black dignitaries including Congressman Oliver Hart Dockery and the Honorable Abraham Galloway speak. Dockery declared “I am proud to participate with you in the Grand National Jubilee, over an event, the most remarkable known to ancient or modern times. As a republican I congratulate and rejoice with you in this great triumph.  The leaders of that infernal rebellion have been sorely disappointed in its results; they started out to perpetuate slavery, and behold the shackles have been broken and you are free!” 

Congressman Dockery https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017893712

Other speakers included then Howard University student George L. Mabson (who went on to be North Carolina's first black lawyer).  Mabson declared “The Fifteenth Amendment is today a part and parcel of the fundamental law of the land, and we are citizens of this great republic in law and in fact.” Mabson went on to advocate for more change: “But while it is true that a great battle has been fought and won, won too by the Republican party, the mission of that party is not consummated. Upon the statute books of this nation the word white still remains. Our laws are still unequal.” Mabson was referring to the fact that you couldn’t come to the US from Africa and be nationalized, and he wanted that to change as well.

The 15th amendment was one of three amendments that transformed previously enslaved peoples’ legal status in the U.S. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, “…except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” The 14th Amendment’s first clause granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized” in the U.S. and included clauses designed to provide everyone with the same rights under the law.

Although the passage of the 15th Amendment was celebrated, African Americans in New Hanover County had been voting for three years by the time it passed.  In 1867, Congress took control of Reconstruction, divided the South into military districts, and insisted that southern states pass all three amendments to re-join the United States. North Carolina was readmitted to the Union in 1868. In order to get back in to the Union, each state had to pass a new constitution. North Carolina held a constitutional convention to rewrite the state’s laws. All males over twenty-one could vote for the delegates.  The majority of New Hanover County's residents were African American and the county's delegation reflected the new political landscape of North Carolina. Voters elected Abraham Galloway, who had been born in slavery in Brunswick County, as one of the county's representatives to the Convention. 

Engraved portrait of Abraham Galloway. From William Still's Underground Railroad, p. 150-151, published 1872, by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. From the collections of the Government &Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina.