Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

The Background of Democracy for Blacks in Mississippi

During the first half of the 1800s, Mississippi was considered both an agrarian and a frontier society. It was populated with Native Americans, European settlers, and enslaved and manumitted Africans. Of these populations, only the European men had full rights as U.S. citizens. By the middle of the 1830s, a movement was afoot to discourage the presence of free Africans in Mississippi. A law passed by the Mississippi legislature in 1822 moved to limit emancipation in order to limit the size and proportions of the state's freed black population. This law gave the legislature authority to decide on all emancipations in Mississippi. Emancipations sharply declined and the free black population never exceeded 1,400.

Mississippi Laws

Mississippi was notorious for its official sanctioning of racist relations. That there was such a small number of free blacks in Mississippi between 1810 and 1860 was attributable to unjust laws and racist codes. Free blacks were discouraged from moving into Mississippi, and free blacks who resided in the state suffered under laws that assumed all blacks were slaves. Blacks within the borders of Mississippi might be asked to prove their free status at any time by showing a certificate with their name, color, physical stature, and other distinguishing features. The certificate was to be renewed every 3 years at a cost that was high enough that many blacks could not afford to renew it. Without proper documentation presented in a timely fashion, free blacks in Mississippi were subject to enslavement and sale on the auction block. The collusion of the state government in this racism illustrates the tradition of hostility that lay at the cultural bedrock of the Democratic Party in the South, often called the Dixiecrat Party in reference to the Southern conservatism displayed by it. Mississippi's resistance to black emancipation and citizenship culminated in the Mississippi government joining the Civil War effort on the side of the Confederacy.

The Era of Reconstruction

After suffering a loss in the Civil War, the proslavery government of Mississippi was replaced by a reconstructed government with the help of the Union Army, which stood sentry over the transformation. Then the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution brought about another change in Mississippi by not allowing political officers to refuse to pledge allegiance to the union. Blacks entered positions in state government and on school boards, and black children entered schools in large numbers.

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