AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, BLACK POLITICAL POWER ROSE ACROSS THE SOUTH.
For a moment, America edged toward its promise of equality but in Mississippi, a campaign of violence and lawmaking reversed that future— and set a model for voter suppression that would spread across the entire country.
The Precedent is an ongoing initiative that examines how Mississippi’s leaders used the Mississippi Plan of 1875 to overthrow Reconstruction, crush Black political power, and set the terms of Jim Crow. It re-frames state and national history by placing this campaign of violence, lawmaking, and disenfranchisement at the center of how we understand voting rights and political power today.
The trailer above drops you inside the lived reality of 1875. The animation series below further unpacks how that reality was engineered. Each short episode walks through a specific move of the Mississippi Plan, from the end of the Civil War and Black political gains to the campaign of terror, the Clinton Massacre, and the laws that locked in one-party rule.
The Mississippi Plan
How a coordinated campaign of terror and fraud in 1875 Mississippi set the precedent for voter suppression across the country.
People, Places, Events
The Black leaders, small towns, and flashpoint events that shaped Reconstruction in Mississippi and sparked the backlash that followed.
1890 to Today
From the 1890 constitution to modern voter roll purges and quiet rollbacks, this episode traces how the Mississippi blueprint still echoes through today’s democracy.
Key Moments In The Story
1875 - The Mississippi Plan and the clinton massacre
Hiram Revels takes office, a visible symbol of Black political power in the South.
1870 - First Black U.S. Senator From Mississippi
White leaders in Jackson develop a plan to regain control through violence and fraud. Armed groups attack Black voters and officials statewide, including the massacre in Clinton and the assassination of Senator Charles Caldwell.
1890 - A constitution built for exclusion
Mississippi adopts a new constitution with poll taxes, literacy tests, and lifetime voting bans that sharply cut Black voter registration and become a model for other states
1968 - 1976 - One black legislator, alone
Robert G. Clark Jr. becomes the first Black Mississippian elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction and serves for years as the only Black member in the body.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
The Precedent is a documentary project produced by the ACLU of Mississippi in collaboration with RED SQUARED.
The film anchors the story and the animated explainers break down the political strategy, violence and legal changes that ended Reconstruction and shaped Mississippi’s 1890 constitution. Together, they connect that history to the work of organizers, lawyers and scholars fighting modern efforts to restrict voting rights and political power.