Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 83

31. John L. McLaurin, “Breaking up the Solid South,” World’s Work (July 1901): 985-86.

Consideration of what will happen to the “solid South” now that the threat of black political domination has been checked. “The fear of Negro domination was the unifying factor in the Democratic party. This not only prevented any division of opinion on domestic or national issues, but it prevented anything like dissensions. So absorbing was the Negro question that the people were, in fact, oblivious to the great changes which were taking place in economic and industrial conditions in the South. White supremacy was the desideratum, and without this anything like the upbuilding [sic] of the material interests and prosperity of the South was considered utterly impossible.” Senator McLaurin continues along the same lines in the next paragraph. “Happily for the South the Negro has been practically eliminated from politics, by restriction of popular suffrage along the lines of educational qualifications. The wisest leaders of the colored race have materially aided in this work by their sage advice to the Negroes to abstain from politics and to devote themselves to industrial and agricultural pursuits. There is a fast growing feeling now that all danger from Negro domination in the South is forever gone.”