The South succumbed to nearly a century of authoritarianism. Black disenfranchisement undermined political competition and locked in place single-party rule across the South. In every post-Confederate state except Tennessee, the Democratic Party held uninterrupted power for more than seventy years. In five states, the Democrats were in power continuously for more than a century. In the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, “Democracy died save in the hearts of black folk.”
