As North Carolina entered into the twentieth century she could not yet manage to sever her ties to the nineteenth century, principally in regards to race relations. The last four decades of the nineteenth century had proven to be the most torturous days in North Carolina's history. Settled by independent families desiring to sustain themselves free of society's problems, the state had found herself drawn into a war she had not wanted, her people arming themselves not to defend slavery but to defend their own lands from Union troops. No state suffered a loss akin to that of North Carolina in terms of both men and means. The peace would prove even more brutal and horrible than the Civil War had ever been, as Thaddeus Stevens and his Radical Republican cohorts sent troops in 1867 to occupy the South militarily. The proud Anglo-Saxon citizens of the state could only watch helplessly as Republicans instituted a government based on Negro domination. In the two decades following the end of Reconstruction, power shifted back and forth between the Democratic and Republican parties. This political competition had came to a head in the 1890s. Economic depression served only to increase racial tensions, complicated even more by the formation of a third political party in the state, the People's Party. In 1898 America was drawn into a war with Spain in the wake of the mysterious explosion of the Maine in Havana Harbor. In that war of roughly one hundred days, Northern and Southern boys fought side by side; the very sons of the Confederacy sacrificed their lives in defense of the flag their fathers had rejected. For the first time, the United States was truly united in more than name alone. This reuniting of the Anglo-Saxon race had immediate political effects in both the North and South. No longer was the Negro the ward of the nation. Left more or less to fend for themselves, the Negroes quickly fell prey to Democratic efforts to strip all power and privilege from them in North Carolina.

The People's Party, consisting mainly of farmers and the simple men who lived in rural areas, had joined forces with the Republican Party, putting class before race in order to work together and seize power away from Democratic control. This political fusion had achieved a significant victory in 1896 by filling roughly two-thirds of the seats in the legislature. Finding their backs pushed to the wall, the Democrats came out with both guns loaded in the 1898 campaign. Fully aware that the alliance between the Populists and Republicans was a delicate one at best, the conservatives attacked the relationship at its weak link, namely the race question. The campaign of 1898 revolved predominantly around the average white man. The Negroes would vote in a Republican bloc, but their numbers could not compete with those of a united white race; of course, this vote was now split between the Populists and Democrats. The strategy adopted by the Democrats was an outspoken campaign based solely on the principle of white supremacy. The fusionist government was attacked as corrupt and dominated by the Negro. The Radical mentality gaining strength at the time was influential in portraying the Negro as a beast dominated by an insatiable lust for the South's defenseless white women. Organizations such as the "Red Shirts" arose to intimidate the Negro voter. Through this show of force the Negro was effectively denied his right to vote. As a result, the Democrats were able to return to power in 1898, albeit not by a large margin of victory. Determined to remain in power permanently, the Democrats moved quickly to strip the Negro of the franchise and to unify the white race as one party in a political hegemony wherein racial issues would predominate over class issues.

The fires of racial passion having been stirred by the events in Wilmington in the days following the November general election, the Democrats in 1899 proposed an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that would require those desiring to register and vote to pass a literacy test. This was a thinly-veiled, direct attack on the Republican forces, namely the Negro; the Democrats called for Populist support for this measure. In August 1898 the Populists had published a handbook critical of Democratic tactics. In this booklet one can see the troubles faced by the People's Party. They were dependent on the alliance they had made with the Republican party to have any real power at all, yet they were now forced to please their own party's members so they would not be misled by the racist rhetoric espoused by the Democrats. Finding themselves dragged into the mud of old-time Southern politics, the Populists asserted boldly and loudly that they and not the Democrats were the true white man's party. The Democratic Party, made up of conservatives of the older generation and the younger generation of men who were calling for the continued industrialization of the New South, in reality agreed on only one thing, the natural inferiority of the Negro. Any political campaign had to revolve around the race question. While attacking the Democratic-inspired constitutional amendments, the Populists maintained that they indeed wanted Negro disfranchisement, yet this Democratic approach they saw as unconstitutional. In a slippery sort of argument, they attacked the Democrats for the methods being employed while publicly supporting the end to which the reforms were so made. To the Populist, the end, although a good thing, did not justify the means for the simple reason that they considered the means to be a violation of the democratic spirit put forth by the Founding Fathers in the United States Constitution.

In response to this Populist handbook, the Democrats issued their own publication belittling the Populist party as a mere tool of the Republicans. In this booklet the Populist was portrayed as an apologist for Negro domination in North Carolina. The Populist handbook had left the party wide open for attack, as it lacked any real discussion of Populist reforms and principles. In trying to portray themselves as the true white man's party, notwithstanding their alliance with the Republicans, they had gone so far as to even charge the Democrats with appointing a number of Negro officials, which the Democrats could only label as ridiculous. In an effort to maintain white support, the Populists charged the Democrats with trying to disfranchise the Negro by means of an unsatisfactory method, while at the same time the Republicans were denouncing the conservatives for their very efforts to disfranchise both Negroes and even some poor whites. The Populists tried to show the white male population that in spirit they supported Negro disfranchisement, even though legally they sided with the Republicans in criticizing the method proposed to bring it about. The political unrest of 1898 would prove a mere prelude to the political warfare of 1900. The proposed Democratic amendment to disfranchise the largest portion of the Negro race came up for a popular vote; the very future of the Populist party was dependent on the results. The Populists did not join in support of the amendment, thereby rejecting the conservative argument that the race problem stood as a stumbling block to all progress whatsoever, particularly economic improvements. No issue could be properly addressed so long as the legislature was bitterly divided. One strong supporter of the amendment was John S. Cunningham, who compiled a list of the positive results that would accrue to the state and society upon the passing of this disfranchisement amendment. It would remove forever the threat of a superior race being ruled by an inferior minority; no whites would be disfranchised; political divisions based on race would end, fostering a cooperative legislature that could devote its time to progressive measures, particularly those involving economic improvements; property would be more secure and the government more stable; county government would be stabilized; schools and education would be stimulated and expanded; credit would be more secure, Negro temptations would be removed and industrial jobs given to white men; and the overall public welfare would improve, in large part due to the reduction in Negro crimes.

The amendment itself was proposed by the Democrats as one affecting the Negro but not the white man. As stated at the beginning of an Amendment Catechism distributed by a conservative publisher in 1900--highlighted by the words "Let Every White Man Read and Hand to His Neighbor"--"The chief object of the Amendment is to eliminate the ignorant and irresponsible negro vote." In technical terms the proposed amendment was to be in Article VI of the North Carolina Constitution, namely Sections 4 and 5. The change in Section 4 involved the establishment of an educational requirement for voter registration and voting. It was summed up in the words: "Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language. . ." Section 5 contained the ingenious "grandfather clause," which essentially allowed any man whose ancestor had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867, to vote without needing to be literate. It went on to set the date of December 1, 1908, as the deadline for an individual to qualify under this clause, everyone from that time onward to be subjected to the literacy test with no loopholes. Thus, the "grandfather clause" was not to be a permanent feature of future state politics. This qualification was designed to benefit the illiterate white class while efforts would be made to provide education for their children.

A major battle ensued over the legality of the amendment, the Populists especially contending it was not constitutional. Lawyers, politicians, and supposedly ambivalent men lined up on both sides of the issue. The problem involved the interpretation of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. A majority of learned men felt the educational clause to be within the bounds of law, while a large number felt the "grandfather clause" in Section 6 would not be upheld if challenged. The 15th federal Constitutional Amendment states that, "The right of citizens in 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." Despite its goal of disfranchising the Negro, Democrats and supporters of the amendment asserted that the educated Negro could vote as could the descendants of certain freedmen. As such, they argued that the Negro would not be disfranchised for his race under this new amendment. Ibid., 6-9. It was estimated that 80,000 of North Carolina's 120,000 Negroes would be stripped of their right to vote, while the illiterate white man was to be given a political backdoor. Illiterate whites who qualified under Section 5 would be put on a permanent roll if they would register before the 1908 deadline; once on this roll, the individual would always be able to vote no matter his educational level. John S. Cunningham offered a justification of this clause by maintaining that there is a significant difference between being ignorant and being educated. Although roughly a quarter of North Carolina's white men were illiterate in 1890, they had been exposed to the republican heritage of America; owing to his inheritance of thousands of years of Anglo-Saxon progress, the white man should be allowed to vote. It was preached that even the most educated Negro was unqualified to take part in a complex political system such as that found in America; due to his reckless use of the ballot, the Negro continually voted against even his own interests, and almost always against the good of the state. In essence, the Negro was not being disfranchised because he was a Negro per se; rather, it was because he was not educated and qualified to understand the complexities of Anglo-Saxon government. Of course, the reason the Negro was not educated was one of race. He could not vote because he was uneducated, but he was uneducated precisely because he was a Negro; the Democratic argument, though, failed to take this causality to its natural end, whereby the inference is quite clear that the Negro was being denied his right to vote for the reason of his color alone.

The Republican Party was hit the hardest by this strong reform movement, for without the Negro vote no Republican candidate would win office anywhere in the state. The white supremacy campaign was designed as an outright attack on the Republican Party. The Republicans depended on the alliance with the Populists to exercise a degree of legislative power; indirectly, this meant they needed the votes of poor whites within the Populist ranks. As a result, they now found themselves defending the white man's suffrage when only three decades earlier they had worked during Reconstruction to disfranchise masses of Southern white men.

The Populists were the determining factor in the 1900 vote on the amendment. They were in a very vulnerable position; they could not afford to split with the Republicans and isolate themselves, and neither could they lose party members to the Democratic party. Their mode of attack was to portray their own grass-roots party as the true white man's party; to do so they resorted to verbal attacks on the Democrats. In the Populists' 1900 platform it was stated that "The People's Party is and always has been more distinctly than any other party in North Carolina a white man's party, and is more anxious than any other party to solve the race problem. . ." They opposed the amendment itself but were careful to distance themselves from the appearance of being for Negro suffrage. They declared race was not a party issue, while the whole campaign of the Democrats revolved around the Negro question. In a 1900 handbook concerning the suffrage amendment, it was stated that, "Neither the People's Party nor any members of it, nor of any other party, have ever contended with such power, force, and eloquence for negro suffrage [as the Democrats have]. . .The People's Party DOES NOT CONTEND FOR THAT SUFFRAGE NOW. It simply pleads for loyalty to the National Constitution, and insists that the `PLIGHTED WORD OF HONOR' of the State be adhered to." The Populists could have taken no other position. To take a firm stand could well have led to their absorption into one of the other two parties. The Democrats believed that the poor whites of the People's Party agreed with their anti-Negro stance. They had no real quarrel with many Populist beliefs pertaining to economics and other matters. Personal ambition and the selfish desire to maintain the positions each Populist individual had acquired were understood by the Democrats to be the real driving force behind the Populist movement. White men, they felt sure, would band together to put an end to the threat of Negro domination once and for all.

The Populists did give the Democrats a strong fight before the party's political disintegration. While the Democrats appealed to poor whites by way of racism, the Populists tried to tell these same individuals that the Democrats were plotting to take away their individual liberties, just as if they were mere Negroes. Crucial to their argument was evidence that the Democrats would soon place a property requirement on the right to vote. One Populist fear was that Section 5 of the amendment would be declared unconstitutional but that the rest of the amendment would be upheld. This would mean the disfranchisement of a large number of poor whites, the very men who made up the bulk of the Populist Party. The Democrats felt sure that the amendment would either be passed as a whole or totally rejected. Along with this, Populists put forth evidence that the Democrats were planning to add a property qualification to suffrage on the heels of the upcoming 1902 election. In fact, the very first draft of the amendment passed in 1900 had contained just such a provision. There was to have been a $300 property qualification on top of the educational and grandfather aspects of the reform. The Democrats, though, had decided that it would be unwise to attempt too much change at one time. In a Populist brochure concerning this subject of the property requirement, a certain G. D. Hayes quotes Democratic representative of Wake County Gaston Powell as having said, "IT WILL NOT DO TO REQUIRE TOO MUCH OF THE PEOPLE AT ONCE; that if in this election (August, 1900) we can carry this proposed Amendment requiring an educational qualification, then afterwards we can submit another amendment requiring a property qualification." Whether this was true or not, clearly the white voter in the 1900 election would be more concerned with the racial threat of the here and now, especially when it could help him to assert his superiority once again over the Negro, than he would be of a possible property qualification down the line, this being reinforced by his hope that a weakening of Negro power in the state would open up better economic opportunities for poor whites.

The Democrats won out in this struggle by a 59:41 margin in 1900, due to the intimidation of the Negro and the winning over of a certain portion of the Populists. It is significant that after the date of January 1, 1908, the Negro and the white man were essentially to face the same restrictions upon their right to vote. It would be necessary from then on to pass the literacy test in order to be allowed to register and vote. The Democrats argued that this would help lead to big gains in education, some going so far as to believe illiteracy would rather quickly be eradicated in the state. The Democrats, having made North Carolina a one-party state for all intents and purposes by splitting up the Republican-Populist alliance of the mid-1890s, were now able to push their own agenda through the legislature. Almost immediately North Carolina society changed. As Reverend A. J. McKelway, editor of Charlotte's The Presbyterian Standard, happily observed before year's end, "Already in North Carolina there is a kindlier feeling to the negro, now that he is no longer a menace to good government." As in the olden days, the "good Negro" was one who had no active part in the lives of white men and women, a silent partner in a land unjustifiably characterized as a democracy. The victory would be a complete disaster for the Populist Party, which quickly floundered and died; the white elite, having been stripped of its control over the black mass in the War Between the States, had once and for all withstood the challenge to their authority posed by the white mass, thereafter to be absorbed by the Democratic Party, beginning the long run of a Democratic Solid South. Those men sensitive to Populist feeling such as Marion Butler could do little more than grieve for the death of democracy in North Carolina. In disgust upon the heels of the 1900 political triumph of the Democrats, he moaned that "white supremacy is the slogan, but it has degenerated into the Redshirt, the symbol of anarchy." A new century had now dawned, but North Carolina had managed to keep a strong foothold in the 19th century, denying the Negro the full measure of humanity. National unity had been achieved through the reunion of the Anglo-Saxon race, but it came with the price of Negro subordination.