It is like Banquo’s ghost, and will not down. The South has this question always with it. Out of it grew the war, and after the war came the results of the war, and those results are with us now. It has reference to the race question in the South, the question which has been the cause of more sorrow, more misery, more loss of life, more expenditure of treasure than any and all questions which have confronted the American people from the foundation of the Government to the present day. However, he would not allow me to answer or interject an objection as he went along. President, I regret that I feel the necessity of bringing up again some parts of the speech of the Senator who has just taken his seat. Source: Congressional Record, 56th Congress, 1st Session, 3223-3224. Washington, Tillman is reported to have said that it would take killing a thousand black men to put them back in their place. When Theodore Roosevelt had dinner in the White House with Booker T. Not only did he organize violence against African Americans, he once punched another senator in the face on the floor of the Senate. Tillman had used the theme of white supremacy to build political power in South Carolina and was known for his abusive rhetoric and violent manner. He also frankly acknowledged the use of lynching. Tillman alluded to this effort in his speech, and explained his rationale for it. For example, it created both a poll tax and a literacy test, the latter of which could be manipulated to discriminate against African Americans. He played an active role in anti-black violence in the 1870s and helped draft the state’s 1895 constitution that sought to disenfranchise blacks.
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