Contested Elections can Unleash Violent White Supremacy. We have Seen it Before
Last week, President Trump declined to commit to accepting the results of the election. When given a chance to commit to a peaceful transition of power, he said, “We’re going to have to see what happens.” On Thursday, he continued his months-long campaign to raise concerns about voter fraud linked to mail ballots — despite no evidence of it actually being an issue — claiming that short of a Supreme Court decision, the vote count would be a “a horror show.” Trump has even said things that some supporters might interpret as welcoming violence. All of this has raised possible scenarios about a potential constitutional crisis that could unfold in November.
The result could be a surge in violent white supremacy, designed to bolster Trump and extend his time in office. It has happened before in American history during the contested 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election, between Conservative party candidate, ex-Confederate battalion commander John McEnery and Republican William Pitt Kellogg.
The election took place during Reconstruction when the federal government was working to guarantee civil rights of formerly enslaved people. After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment freed 4 million African-descended Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, guaranteed equal protection of the laws and struck down discriminatory Black Codes. The 15th Amendment guaranteed male citizens the right to vote regardless of race or previous slavery, and the 1870 Enforcement Act — also called the Ku Klux Klan Act — empowered federal authorities to prosecute civil rights violations.
In 10 years, the country had seemingly moved from Emancipation Proclamation to citizenship for African Americans. Yet conservative Whites rallied around a vision of bringing back the old order. The stakes were high in Louisiana’s 1872 election. It was the first to take place under the 1868 state constitution permitting Black voting in accordance with federal civil rights protections. It was a test of whether Republican-led efforts to bring African Americans into the party and build a multiracial political order could survive determined, armed White opposition.