Although some of the black officeholders during the Reconstruction of
Alabama were Southerners and others were Northern, all were Republicans.
According to Richard Bailey, they were neither carpetbaggers nor
scalawags. Though Frederick Douglass remarked that "the Republican Party
is the ship, all else is the ocean," the Republican vessel capsized, and
even Republicans performed few successful rescue attempts.
The Reconstruction era is looked upon variously as a period of Black
radical domination and as a period of corruption and debauchery. In fact,
it was neither.' Black Republicans envisioned a world where a Republican
would be a Republican and not a black or white Republican. Bailey's
summary of chapter six though nine captures the essence of the differences
and relationships between black and white Republicans of the
Reconstruction era. He states that "African Americans were dazed by the
callous attitude fellow Republicans held toward their aspirations. They
wanted a share in the spoils of office; they believed that white
Republicans owed them such an opportunity. To their dismay, they found
that not only would their [white] fellows fail to support them in their
candidacy for office, but that they would not support them against Klan
violence or Democratic opposition. Still African Americans remained loyal
to the Republican Party in the hope that eventually it would champion
their cause. As events began to unfold, however, they found little cause
for suchoptimism."2
World War I is another example of lost optimism. W.E.B. DuBois said of
the war effort, "Let us, [African Americans] ... forget our special
grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our own white
fellow citizens ... that are fighting for democracy." After the war,
DuBois disappointedly mused, "The Crisis and tens of thousands of black
men were drafted into a great struggle.... we fought gladly and to the
last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideas, we fought in
far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in
Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that
represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and
devilish insult.... But today we return!... We stand again to look America
squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of
ours, is yet a shameful land. It lynches.... It disfranchises its own
citizens .... It encourages ignorance ..... It steals from us.... It
insults us... ."3
DuBois in his Souls of Black Folk captures what he thought was the goal
of African Americans. He "simply wishes to make it possible for a man to
be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spat upon by his
fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his
face."4 Regarding this moral test, it is safe to say that America has
consistently failed as it relates to the welfare of African Americans. The
statements by Douglass and DuBois are testimony to this failure.
Bailey adds clarity and specificity to the debate with Neither
Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags. In Alabama, as in every other Southern state,
for the first time black men participated in the body politic of this
nation with the aspirations of making a lasting contribution and forever
ending White supremacist arrogance. The gallant effort in Alabama is
thoroughly demonstrated by Richard Bailey. While it is celebratory of
African America's participation in such an important period of American
history, the account is meticulously documented and aids lay person's as
well as scholars in their work.
