CHAPTER IX.
WHAT CONSTITUTES "NEGRO DOMINATION" It is claimed that in States, districts, and counties, in which the colored people are in the majority, the suppression of the colored vote is necessary to prevent "Negro Domination,"-- to prevent the ascendency of the blacks over the whites in the administration of the State and local governments.
This claim is based upon the assumption that if the black vote were not suppressed in all such States, districts, and counties, black men would be supported and elected to office because they were black, and white men would be opposed and defeated because they were white.
Taking Mississippi for purposes of illustration, it will be seen that there has never been the slightest ground for such an apprehension.

No colored man in that State ever occupied a judicial position above that of Justice of the Peace and very few aspired to that position.

Of seven State officers only one, that of Secretary of State, was filled by a colored man, until 1873, when colored men were elected to three of the seven offices,--Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, and State Superintendent of Education.

Of the two United States Senators and the seven members of the lower house of Congress not more than one colored man occupied a seat in each house at the same time.

Of the thirty-five members of the State Senate, and of the one hundred and fifteen members of the House,--which composed the total membership of the State Legislature prior to 1874,--there were never more than about seven colored men in the Senate and forty in the lower house.