Democrats enact their "black codes" to oppress African-Americans

GRAND OLD PARTISAN (Michael Zak) - On this day in 1865, the Democrat-controlled legislature of Mississippi passed the nation's first "black codes." These were laws that the Democrats of the post-Civil War South enacted to impose near-slavery on African-Americans.

According to these Democrat laws, African-Americans could not:

vote
serve on juries
testify against white people
own guns
travel without permission
assemble for political purposes
own farmland
be outdoors at night
change jobs without permission

Democrats decreed that all African-Americans had to:

sign annual labor contracts with white masters
be deferential to all white people
be apprenticed (in practice, enslaved) to white masters until adulthood
work only in agriculture and a few other occupations

After winning a two-thirds majority in Congress, Republicans swept away the black codes by passing, over the veto of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, the Civil Rights Act and other Reconstruction legislation. These laws guaranteed full civil rights to African-Americans, many of whom then entered politics. As Democrats regained control of the South in the 1870s, they again oppressed African-Americans with a new set of regulations known as "Jim Crow" laws.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. He is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. Each day, the Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.