Edward McCrady Jr.

The Charlestonian McCrady, awarded a Doctorate of Civil Laws in 1903, reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army. His brother was John McCrady, a Confederate veteran and outspoken scientific racist who taught biology at Sewanee in 1878-1881. Edward McCrady supported the disenfranchisement of Black and poor white voters, believing white elites were best qualified to make governmental policy decisions. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he masterminded the infamous Eight Box Law of 1882, which helped engineer disenfranchisement of Black voters. McCrady disparaged the intellect of Black voters—who, under slavery, would not have had the educational opportunities of whites through no fault of their own. McCrady suggested that bribing the leaders of Black congregations was the only way Southern Democrats could secure Black votes; barring that, he suggested that violence was a useful method for disenfranchising black voters. He also advocated for ways to control Black voters because former slaves were not "responsible" enough to be civically engaged:

"...Generally, but little above his congregation or class, he becomes corrupt, and it is often found that the only way to secure a given negro vote is "to buy a preacher." But even this is seldom effectual, for it has become a part alike of his creed and of his franchise, that the negro must vote against the white man…But by all means, let us hazard violence, be the consequences what they may, rather than rely upon fraud...Violence will not degrade us as fraud will. Is there no way left open to us to amend the election law, so that the negro vote, while it remains in its ignorance, can be reduced in numbers, but so that it will ultimately be educated to its responsibility?”

-Edward McCrady Jr, The Necessity of Raising the Standard of Citizenship, and the Right of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina to Impose Qualifications Upon Electors, 1881