William Mahone's Biracial Coalition and Its Destruction

The Virginia Readjuster Party under William Mahone had governed since 1879 with genuine biracial support: appointing Black men to state offices, funding Black schools, abolishing the poll tax, and reforming the state debt. At its peak it sent Mahone to the Senate with Republican support. The 1883 Democratic campaign of racial terror and the Danville Massacre destroy the only successful biracial governing coalition in post-Reconstruction Virginia.