Lodge Federal Elections Bill Filibustered: Black Voting Rights Abandoned

The Federal Elections Bill, authored by Henry Cabot Lodge and passed by the House, is filibustered to death in the Republican-controlled Senate in January 1891. The bill would have allowed federal supervision of congressional elections to protect Black voters in the South. Its defeat signals the final Republican retreat from Reconstruction-era commitments. For the next 74 years, no federal civil rights legislation passes Congress.