“Marjorie Nixon Smith” Vote For “Marj, The Teflon Woman”
By Jeanette Grattan Parker
Dr. Jeanette Parker
With the disenfranchisement of blacks at the turn of the 20th century after the Reconstruction era, Alabama Democrats suppressed populist challenges and the state became part of the “Solid South.” This constitution was not initially supported by the majority of Whites, but Democrats used the call of white supremacy to gain passage.[1] In addition to wanting to affirm white supremacy, the planter and business elite were concerned about voting by lower-class and uneducated Whites. Historian J. Morgan Kousser found, “They disfranchised these Whites as willingly as they deprived Blacks of the vote. Mrs. Marjorie Nixon Smith agreed to tell me “her story.”