POLITICS

            When looking past the sometimes biased judges and juries, as well as the radical statistics of sentencing, characteristics of prejudice would be expected from those in the Legislative positions of South Carolina. Being the first State to succeed from the Union, starting the Civil War and the inevitable end of slavery, many view South Carolina as a breeding zone for racism and prejudice, even in the political realm. In Actuality, those assumptions are completely wrong, and, for the most part, have been so since the start of Reconstruction in the late nineteenth century and the end of Democratic rule.

The conventional meetings to ratify the state constitution in 1877-78 are a prime example, showing that the number of African American representatives there outnumbered those that were white 75-49. This result weighed the Republican Party to a larger number than the Democrats, which, at the time, was more beneficial to the fundamentals of Reconstruction. From here, through the evolution of the political parties, roles have changed, and the number of representatives has fluctuated as well.

            Today, Democrats now favor minorities more so than Republicans in South Carolina, where in the House of Representatives, Republicans outweigh Democrats 74-50, and in the Senate also 25-20. Differing from the late nineteenth century, this doesn’t exhibit much, but with a minority favoring party with less numbers, some have suspicion that prejudice in the Republican Party is available and sometimes used. Also, when considering the amount of minorities in the South Carolina Congress since the end of Reconstruction, there have only been five women and one African American who have been members. Comparing these numbers to other state Congress’s and the entire US Congress, South Carolina demonstrates the least diversity. With this information, prejudice does seem like an viable possibility, but the fact that South Carolina’s entire Legislature has had no major problems dealing with bias since incorporating minorities, it is safe to say that the political aspect of the Judicial system since Reconstruction has prevailed over its many undermines. 

For statistical information visit:

http://www.scstatehouse.net/ 

http://senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/two_column_table/stats_and_lists.htm

http://congressionalblackcaucus.net/

For more general information visit:

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5469

http://www.usca.edu/aasc/newman.htm

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5b.html

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