The White Municipal Party was a
white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
political organization established in
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
to eliminate African American influence in municipal elections.
The group limited local elections to white candidates for many years by excluding African Americans from party membership and thereby blocking them from participating in primary elections where the eventual election winners were actually determined. The party produced an unbroken series of mayors in Tampa from 1910 until 1947.
[https://www.tbo.com/south-tampa/mayors-offer-history-lesson-on-tampa-st-pete-91380 ]
Florida politics had been dominated by one party, the Democratic Party, since the 1880s.
And in 1902 the Florida Democratic Party limited membership to whites only.
[
The formation of the White Municipal Party followed an attempt by Zacariah D. Greene, a lawyer and principal at ]Harlem Academy
Harlem Academy is an independent, nonprofit, co-educational school (grades K-8) accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS). It was founded in 2004.
Academics and curriculum
Primary
The primary school inclu ...
to run for a municipal judgeship. City officials prevented him from running and Judge Wall dismissed his appeal. The judge became a member of the executive committee of the party.[
]Pam Iorio
Pamela Dorothy Iorio (born April 27, 1959) is an American politician and author, who served as mayor of Tampa, Florida from 2003 to 2011.
Early life, education, and family
Iorio moved with her family to Temple Terrace as an infant and attended Hi ...
, who served as mayor of Tampa, wrote about the group in the ''Florida Historical Quarterly'' published by the Florida Historical Society
The Florida Historical Society is an organization that promotes the study of the history of Florida. Incorporated in 1856, the Society collects, preserves and publishes materials relating to the history of Florida and its denizens. After being re ...
.[
]
See also
*White Citizens Parties White Citizens Parties were autonomous local parties (often county-based) in the Southern United States, that served as the public face and often directly as what would today be considered Political Action Committees for racist organizations like t ...
*Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
*White Citizens Councils
The Citizens' Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of White supremacy, white supremacist, Racial segregation in the United States, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentra ...
*List of mayors of Tampa, Florida
The Mayor is the highest elected official in Tampa, Florida. Since its incorporation in 1856, the town has had 59 mayors. Tampa had no mayor from 1862 until 1866, during which time the city government was temporarily suspended during and immediate ...
*Nixon v. Herndon
''Nixon v. Herndon'', 273 U.S. 536 (1927), was a United States Supreme Court decision which struck down a 1923 Texas law forbidding blacks from voting in the Texas Democratic Party primary. Due to the limited amount of Republican Party activity ...
, a 1923 U.S. Supreme Court case
*Grovey v. Townsend
''Grovey v. Townsend'', 295 U.S. 45 (1935), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court decision that held a reformulation of Texas's white primaries system to be constitutional. The case was the third in a series of Cou ...
, 1935 U.S. Supreme Court case
*Smith v. Allwright
''Smith v. Allwright'', 321 U.S. 649 (1944), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. It overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set thei ...
, 1944 U.S. Supreme Court Case
References
{{Reflist
History of Tampa, Florida
White supremacist groups in the United States