centrations of the Negro, “Negroes were still voting in many parts of the South. Between 1876 and 1890 their voting strength had been cut in some Southern states by as much as one-half, but it had not been completely wiped out anywhere. Negro voters remained so considerable in some areas, especially in the Black Belt districts, that they posed a real problem for white candidates for public office who vied with each other for Negro support; and it was not unheard-of that a white candidate for one office had to join forces with a Negro candidate for another office in order to be certain of victory,” (Scheiner, et.al., 1971: 262).
The industrial revolution that the South began to experience did not bode well for the black farmer in the 1880s. The position of the farmer had steadily declined. The few who were well-to-do planters and business men remained at the top, and their political strength began to increase as they more and more aligned themselves with Northern industrialists and financiers. As the South became more industr
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