Memphis, Tennessee

=== Late 19th century ===
The 1890 election was strongly contested, resulting in white opponents of the [[D. P. Hadden]] faction working to deprive them of votes by [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchising blacks]]. The state had enacted several laws, including the requirement of [[poll taxes]], that made it more difficult for them to register to vote and served to [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchise]] many blacks. Although political party factions in the future sometimes paid [[poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]] to enable blacks to vote, African Americans lost their last positions on the city council in this election and were forced out of the police force. (They did not recover the ability to exercise the franchise until after the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.) Historian L. B. Wrenn suggests the heightened political hostility of the Democratic contest and related social tensions contributed to a white mob [[Peoples Grocery|lynching three black grocers in Memphis in 1892]].<ref name="wrenn">{{cite book |author = Wrenn, Lynette Boney |year = 1998 |page = given in superscript |title = Crisis and Commission Government in Memphis: Elite Rule in a Gilded Age City |location = Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |publisher = University of Tennessee Press |isbn = 978-0-87049-997-5 |url = https://archive.org/details/crisiscommission0000wren |url-access = registration |access-date = December 2, 2015}}</ref>{{rp|124,131}}

Journalist [[Ida B. Wells]] of Memphis investigated the lynchings, as one of the men killed was a friend of hers. She demonstrated that these and other lynchings were more often due to economic and social competition than any criminal offenses by black men. Her findings were considered so controversial and aroused so much anger that she was forced to move away from the city. But she continued to investigate and publish the abuses of [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]].<ref name="wrenn" />{{rp|131}}

Businessmen were eager to increase the city population after the losses of 1878–79, and supported the annexation of new areas; this measure was passed in 1890 before the census. The annexation measure was finally approved by the state legislature through a compromise achieved with real estate magnates, and the area annexed was slightly smaller than first proposed.<ref name="wrenn" />{{rp|126}}

In 1893 the city was rechartered with [[home rule]], which restored its ability to enact taxes. The state legislature established a cap rate.<ref>Adams, James Truslow and Ketz, Louise Bilebof. ''Dictionary of American History'', New York: Scribner, 1976, p. 302.</ref> Although the commission government was retained and enlarged to five commissioners, Democratic politicians regained control from the business elite. The commission form of government was believed effective in getting things done, but because all positions were elected [[at-large]], requiring them to gain majority votes, this practice reduced representation by candidates representing significant minority political interests.<ref name="wrenn" />{{rp|126f}}