Can you imagine a black politician, a member of the Republican party being targeted by Democrats because he the powerful office of South Carolina State Treasurer. I read a black history article about Francis L. Cardozo and could not help but think about how President Obama is being given a hard time by the Republicans who used to be the party that blacks had refuge. I am not saying it is a color thing but it is ironic how history tends to repeat. Below is a “snippet” of the biography. You can skip to the end to read what the Democrats tried to do to him.
Cardozo began his political activities the spring of 1866, when he served on a board advising the military commander of South Carolina about voter registration regulations. In the spring of 1868 he was elected to the state constitutional convention held in Charleston. Although he still served as principal of the AMA school while he attended the convention, he had to give up teaching classes. While principal, Cardozo also drew up plans for state-supported public education. His plans allowed but did not require separate schools for blacks and whites. In 1868 Cardozo served as president of the Union League, which worked to ensure a Republican victory in the elections. The only black candidate on the statewide Republican ticket, Cardozo was then elected South Carolina’s secretary of state. He resigned his school position on May 1, just days before Avery Institute was formally dedicated.
As secretary of state Cardozo fought against the fraud he found in the state’s Land Commission, reorganizing the Commission in 1872. He was reelected secretary of state in
1870, and there was some support for him as a possible candidate to the U.S. Senate. During this time, he also worked as a teacher of Latin at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Cardozo was next elected as state treasurer, a position he held until 1876. He supported efforts of reform by the Republicans to lower taxes and do away with corruption.
In 1877 Cardozo left South Carolina, accepting a post in the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. During this time, South Carolina Democrats launched a smear campaign against all Republicans, and Cardozo was charged with eight counts of fraud. In 1879 a political deal resulted in a pardon and the dismissal of the remaining charges.
