Who was busy at the Klan meeting?

This is in response to this NB post.

First off, can you spot the Republicans on this list?

Now let's get class started. (FYI, I am not a registered Republican)

" There weren't no voting at all in slavery times ( in his locality-ed.) that is, far as the niggers were concerned. But after everybody was free you could vote up until they stopped the people from voting. They kept a Republican ticket in then. There wasn't no Democrat. None like they is now. I don't know how this thing got mixed up like it is now. " (answered in his next statement)

" I remember once in North Carolina a man named Bryant got away with a lot of votes in the boxes. He was seen to go out with two boxes under his arms. And when they counted up the votes, the Democrats was ahead...they sent him to the penitentiary to stay five years. " (I'm shocked, shocked!! Picking up jaw off floor as I type.)

AK Narratives Vol.II, Part 3-Pg.365

" De Ku Klux kill niggers. Dey come to take my uncle. He open de door. Dey don't take him, but tell him to vote Democrat next day or dey will. Dey kilt some niggers what wouldn't vote Democrat. Dey kill my old Uncle Davis. He won't vote Democrat. Dey shoot him. Den dey stand him up and let him fall down. Dey tie him by de feet. Dey drag him through de bresh. Dey dare his wife to cry. "

TX Narratives Vol.XVI, Part 1-Pg.38

" A Democrat offered my husband 80 acres of land if he would vote a Democrat ticket and get his friends to change from Republicans to Democrats and my husband told him he would suffer his right arm to be cut off before he would do that, and he didn't change either. "

MO Narratives Vol.X, Pg.315

" Ku Klux'ers said dey wuzzen gonna have no 'nigguh' mayor. So dey tuk him out and killed him." "Down in Arkansas dey say dey gonna make us all vote Democrat. My step-daddy say he die 'fore he vote Democrat. "

MO Narratives Vol.X, Pg.54

" I'se a Publican who ever heared of a Democrat nigger. Nigger neber did own anything so dey can't be Democrats en if dey vote a Democrat ticket dey is jes votin a lie...Ye jes has to hev owned slaves to vote a Democrat ticket..."

KY Narratives Vol.VII, Pg.110

" Abraham Lincoln! Why we mourned three months for that man when he died! I wouldn't miss a morning getting my black arm band and placing it on in rememberance of Abraham, who was the best friend the Negroes ever had. Now old Jeff Davis, I didn't care a thing about him. He was a Democrat and none of them meant anything to the Negro. And if these young negroes don't quit messing with the democratic bunch they are going to be right back where we started from. If they only know as I know they would struggle to keep such from happening, because although I had a good master I wouldn't want to go through it again. "

OK Narratives Vol. XIII, Pg. 114

" Just after the war, the Republicans used to have representatives at the state convention. After the Democrats got in power, they knocked all that in the head...I knowed a nigger politician here by the name of John Bush. He had the United States Land Office. When the Democrats got in power they put him out. "

AK Narratives Vol. II, Part 5-Pg.281

" The Ku Klux Klan was "de devil", but about all they wanted, according to Oliver, was to "make a Democrat" out of the ex-slaves. They were allowed to vote without any trouble, but de Democrats robbed the vote. Yes'm I knowed they did ".

AK Narratives Vol. II, Part 3-Pg.265

" When the Democrats came in power, of course all colored men were let out of office".

AK Narratives Vol. II, Part 3-Pg.31

" Formerly, the negro, attributing his freedom to the efforts of Abraham Lincoln in his behalf, voted almost solidly for the Republican party. Now, however, the Democrats have, by remembering the race when passing out jobs, gained recruits among the colored people, and some negro Democrats are are found here".

KY Narratives Vol. VII-Pg.74

" In them days, when you wanted to put a Republican man in, you didn't have to do much campaigning. They just went to the polls and put him in. Everybody that could vote was Republican. In the fall of 1888 they had a great trouble down there, and some of them got killed. They went around and commanded the negroes not to go to the polls the next day. Some of the negroes would tell them, 'well I'm going to the polls tommorow if I have to crawl'. And then some of them would say 'I'd like to know how you going to vote' ".

AK Narratives Vol. II, Part 6-Pg.29

" Cose I voted the Republican ticket. You never seed a colored person a Democrat in your life".

AK Narratives Vol. II, Part 5-Pg.231

" After the war the Ku Klux didn't bother us but the Red Shirts come and wanted us to join them. My brother-in-law joined and wore one of their shirts with them...Once some mischief was played on a negro who was a Republican and voted for Chamberlain. He was given a card and told to go to a certain merchant who was a Chamberlain, and he would give him supplies. He showed the card to the merchant who got mad and told the negro if he didn't get out of his store he would kill him".

SC Narratives Vol. XIV, Part 3-Pg.278

And a funny one:

" You see my politics didn't suit em. Maybe I shouldn't be tellin you but I was a Socialist, and I was running a mine and wokin' fifteen men and they was all Socialists, and de Republicans and Democrats sure put me out of business--dey put me to de bed".

AK Narratives Vol. II, Part 5-Pg.365

Class dismissed.

All the above quotes can be found here.