Oklahoma::History: May 2020 Archives
Democratic U. S. Senator Thomas Gore expresses his support for the new election law in Oklahoma, approved by the majority Democrats over the objection of the Republicans. As evidence that the Democrats are committed to honest elections, Gore says, "If they [Democrats] had been disposed to tamper with the ballot box, they would possibly have begun with the negro commissioner in Wagoner [County] and the negro representative in Logan [County]." Sen. Gore explains that the Oklahoma law is only going as far as Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in disenfranchising African-American voters "within the purview and limitations of the Fifteenth Amendment." Gore warns, "The negroes hold the balance of power in fourteen counties today and will soon hold the balance of power in fourteen more." Gore claims that Lincoln would have opposed giving African-Americans the vote, had he lived, and concludes, "The democrats and the Lincoln republicans will assuredly make common cause in Oklahoma to preserve and perpetuate Saxon supremacy and Caucasian superiority."
