Readjuster Party - Collapse

Collapse

The Readjusters' effective control of Virginia politics lasted until 1883, when they lost majority control of the state legislature. In 1885 the Democrat Fitzhugh Lee was elected governor. The collapse of the party was precipitated in part by its appointment of two freedmen to the Richmond school board. The collapse of the biracial Republican coalition was related to a broader struggle, over marriage and the legislature's attempt to ban miscegenation. Freedmen wanted to protect equality of rights in marriage, in part to gain protection for previous common-law marriages.

Mahone stayed active in politics, but lost his bid for reelection as U.S. Senator, and as well as another bid for Governor (as a Republican). Riddleberger died in 1890, Mahone in 1895. After the Readjuster Party disappeared, Virginia's Democratic Party dominated.

In the late nineteenth century, the legislature passed constitutional amendments and legislation that effectively disfranchised all blacks and some poor whites. It created Jim Crow and legalized racial segregation of public facilities, including all transportation. Disfranchisement meant that blacks could not serve on juries or run for any office; they lost any political voice. The Republican Party ceased to be competitive in the state. Most blacks were disfranchised until after the mid-1960s, when the civil rights movement gained passage of federal legislation to enforce integration and voting rights.