Black History Month, Constitutional Amendment!

TITLE: The constitutional amendment,!CALL NUMBER: Broadside Collection, portfolio 159, no. 11A rare [P and P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USZ62-32499 (b and w film copy neg.), LC-USZ62-40761 (b and w film copy neg.)

Digital ID: cph 3a41092 Source: b&w film copy neg. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-32499 (b and w film copy neg.) , LC-USZ62-40761 (b&w film copy neg.) Repository: Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA Retrieve uncompressed archival TIFF version (1,680 kilobytes)

SUMMARY: One of a number of highly racist posters issued as part of a smear campaign against Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee John White Geary by supporters of Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer. (See also nos. 1866-6, 1866-7, and 1866-8.) Indicative of Clymer's white-supremacy platform, the posters attack postwar Republican efforts to pass a constitutional amendment enfranchising blacks. In "The Constitutional Amendment" a group of black men are shown crowding ahead of two white veterans and other whites toward a door marked "Polls."

One veterans complains, "Surely, we did not fight for this." Another remarks, "I thought we fought for the Union." A straggly bearded man encourages the blacks, "Come on, my brave boys, you saved the Nation." The black response is, "Dat's so Brudder Yank, and you need our votes now. De poor White Trash must stand back." At right two more white men complain, "Negroes rule us now," and "We have no chance here."

On the left is a column of text: "Geary Is for Negro Suffrage. Stevens [Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens] Advocates it. Forney [Pennsylvania senator John W. Forney] Howls for it, McClure [Alexander K. McClure, Pennsylvania Republican chairman] Speaks for it. Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss Simon Cameron] Wants it. The League Sustains it. They are rich, and want to make The Negro the Equal of the Poor White Man, and then rule them both."

At right are the names of candidates for Congress that supported black voting rights. Below is the commentary: "The Radical Platform--Negro Suffrage the only Issue!' Every man who votes for Geary or for a Radical Candidate for Congress, votes as surely for Negro Suffrage and Negro Equality, as if they were printed on his ballot."

MEDIUM: 1 print : Wood-engraving with letterpress on wove paper ; 36.4 x 52.5 cm (image), CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1866.

NOTES: Title appears as it is written on the item. Block signed: Reynolds N.Y. Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-5.

REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

DIGITAL ID: (b and w film copy neg.) cph 3a41092 hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/, CARD #: app1994000611/PP

Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published works before 1923 are now in the public domain.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-32499]

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