“In the election of 1898, the Democrats recaptured the General Assembly and when the new Democratic-controlled legislature convened in January 1899 it made as one of its first orders of business the disfranchisement of black voters. In February 1899, the General Assembly passed an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that imposed literacy tests and poll taxes…. Democrats in North Carolina made no attempt to disguise the purpose of the suffrage amendment – its intent was ‘to secure white supremacy.’”
Source: The Atlantic