New York, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, and New Jersey announce coordinated mid-cycle redistricting efforts to counter Republican gerrymandering, effectively ending the constitutional norm of decennial redistricting tied to census.
In the 2012 congressional elections, North Carolina Democratic candidates receive over 50% of the statewide popular vote but win only 4 of the state’s 13 congressional seats—a stark demonstration of how the Republican-drawn maps from 2011 effectively nullify voter preferences. The results …
Bill Clinton stunned Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition by using a speech to the civil rights organization to attack rapper/activist Sister Souljah, comparing her to white nationalist David Duke. Sister Souljah had been quoted in The Washington Post saying, in the aftermath of the LA riots, …
The Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly passes a right-to-work bill in March 1957 over the objections of Democrats, labor leaders, and workers, making Indiana one of the first northern industrial states to adopt such legislation. Time Magazine reports in its March 11, 1957 issue that …
On July 17, 1948, approximately 6,000 Southern Democrats from 13 states converge on Birmingham, Alabama, to form the States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) after walking out of the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s civil rights platform. The convention …
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Revenue Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 1014) into law on August 30, 1935, over strong opposition from business, the wealthy, and conservatives from both parties, introducing the “Wealth Tax” as the first major New Deal effort to reform federal taxation …
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913, also known as the Underwood Tariff or Underwood-Simmons Act, slashing average tariff rates from 40 percent to 27 percent and establishing the modern federal income tax for the first time since 1872. Wilson made tariff reduction his first …
The Alabama Constitutional Convention adopted a new state constitution explicitly designed to eliminate Black voting while maintaining white political supremacy through facially neutral provisions. Convention president John Knox declared in his opening address that the convention’s purpose was …
Armed white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina launched the only successful coup d’etat in American history, overthrowing the legally elected biracial government, murdering an estimated 60-300 Black citizens, and establishing one-party white Democratic rule that would persist for …
The 1864 presidential election takes place near the war’s end with incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party facing Democratic nominee former General George B. McClellan. The Democratic Party is deeply divided between Copperheads (Peace Democrats) who favor immediate …
On July 13-16, 1863, New York City erupts in the largest civil urban disturbance in American history as working-class mobs violently protest the federal draft law that allows wealthy men to avoid military service by paying $300—equivalent to an average worker’s annual salary—or hiring …
The Democratic National Convention convenes in Charleston, South Carolina, with Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois as the front-runner for presidential nomination. Before the convention begins, delegations from seven Deep South states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, …
The first of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates took place on August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois, as Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln faced Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas in a contest focused almost entirely on slavery’s expansion into the territories. The debates exposed fundamental …
Franklin Pierce delivered his inaugural address on March 4, 1853, after defeating Winfield Scott in a landslide with 254 electoral votes to 42 as a pro-slavery Northern Democrat. Pierce expressed hope that the Compromise of 1850 had permanently settled the slavery question, stating “I …
Franklin Pierce won the presidency on November 2, 1852, in a devastating landslide with 254 electoral votes to Winfield Scott’s 42, as divisions within the Whig Party over slavery enforcement came to a catastrophic head. Pierce ran as a pro-slavery Northern Democrat—a “doughface” …
The 1848 presidential election takes place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War and intense debates over the extension of slavery into the Mexican Cession. After both the Whig Party and the Democratic Party nominate presidential candidates who are unwilling to rule out the extension of …