Radical reform: interracial politics in post-emancipation North Carolina

Radical Reform describes a remarkable chapter in the Americanpro-democracy movement.

It portrays the largely unknown leaders of the interracial RepublicanParty who struggled for political, civil, and labor rights in North Carolina after the Civil War.

Inso doing, they paved the way for the victorious coalition that briefly toppled the white supremacistDemocratic Party regime in the 1890s.

Beckel provides a nuanced assessment of thedistinctive coalitions built by black and white Republicans, as they sought to outmaneuver theDemocratic Party.

She demonstrates how the dynamic political conditions in the state from 1850 to1900 led reformers of both races to force their traditional society toward a more radical agenda.

Byexamining the evolution of anti-elitist politics and organized labor in North Carolina, Beckelbrings a new understanding to party factionalism of the 1870s and 1880s.

As racial conditionsdeteriorated across America in the 1890s, North Carolina Republicans forged a fragile coalition withPopulists.

While this interracial pro-democracy movement proved triumphant by 1894, it carriedthe seeds of its ultimate destruction.