The Edgefield Plan (borrowed from Mississippi)
What Voter Suppression Looked Like in 1876
I interrupted the writing of a story, “The Leading White Men of Edgefield,” to give you a peek into voter suppression near the end of Reconstruction. My research into the Edgefield story kept coming back to the Edgefield Plan or Straightout Plan, which two South Carolina lawyers adopted from the Mississippi Plan, successfully used to overcome a 5–1 advantage Black voters had in Mississippi.
I spent hours trying to find the actual text of the South Carolina plans, which appear to be well hidden from history. I finally discovered “Plan #1,” which was secretly distributed to Democratic clubs in every county in South Carolina. Among other things, the plan advocates intimidation and murder of Black organizers and voters. This plan and these tactics ultimately led to the Hamburg Massacre of 1876 and the disrupt…
