Voting

After the Civil War, African American men gained the right to vote. By the late 1800s, they formed a large percentage of the voters in Williamsburg and James City County, strongly supporting the Republican Party. Several won election to public office, with Daniel Norton and the Rev. John Dawson serving in the General Assembly, barber John Cary on the city council, and merchant Samuel Harris on the school board. Throughout the South, however, white Democrats regained power in the late 1800s and found ways to deny people of color the right to vote despite the Fifteenth Amendment. In Virginia, the constitution of 1902 capped efforts to disfranchise black voters through poll taxes and literacy tests. As a result, the number of registered black voters in Williamsburg fell from 192 to 36.

Even as most African-American men lost the right to vote, women suffragists campaigned to gain that right. The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, granted women the right to vote. As seen in the voter lists below, white women eagerly paid their poll taxes and registered to vote as the 1920 presidential election approached. Politicians began trying to appeal to the new voters.[1]

References

• Progress Comes to Williamsburg from the exhibit "A Most Thriving & Growing Place": Williamsburg Before the Restoration.

Need help?

To search for further material, visit the Special Collections Research Center's Search Tool List for an overview of the Special Collections Database, W&M Digital Archive, Flat Hat-William & Mary News-Alumni Gazette index, card catalogs, and other tools available to help you find material of interest in William & Mary Libraries Special Collections Research Center.

Questions? Contact the Special Collections Research Center at spcoll@wm.edu or 757-221-3090, or visit the Special Collections Research Center in the Earl Gregg Swem Library at William & Mary.

A Note About The Contents Of This Wiki

The information available in this wiki is the best available from known documents and sources at the time it was written. Unfortunately, many of the early original records of William & Mary were destroyed by fires, military occupation, and the normal effects of time. Information in this wiki is not complete as new information continues to be uncovered in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center and elsewhere. Researchers are strongly encouraged to use the Special Collections search tools for their research as the information contained in this wiki is by no means comprehensive.