The Dog That Did Not Bark: The Failed Attempts to Disenfranchise African Americans in Early Twentieth Century Maryland

We examine the multiple attempts by the Maryland Democratic Party to disenfranchise African Americans between 1901 and 1911. The Democrats sought to disenfranchise African Americans because they were a vital part of the Republican Party, which had recently challenged Democratic electoral dominance in the state. These disenfranchisement attempts took two forms. First, the Democrats tried to manipulate the ballot in 1901 and 1904 to make it more difficult for African Americans to vote. Second, the Democrats tried to amend the state constitution on three different occasions — 1905, 1909, and 1911 — to make it more difficult for African Americans to vote. While the state legislature passed disenfranchising measures, a popular referendum was needed to complete the amendment process, and each time the voters of Maryland rejected it. After a thorough documentation of this history, we conduct an empirical analysis of all disenfranchising efforts. We first show that the ballot reforms initiated in 1901 brought about a significant drop in turnout and increased rolloff in down-ballot races. And in an analysis of the referendum results, we find evidence of a "racial threat" pattern of voting in which support for disenfranchisement increased in more diverse locations.