De Jure and de Facto Determinants of Power: Evidence from Mississippi

We evaluate the empirical relevance of de facto vs. de jure determinants of political power in the
U.S. South between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. We apply
a variety of estimation techniques to a previously unexploited dataset on voter registration by race
covering the counties of Mississippi in 1896, shortly after the introduction of the 1890 voting
restrictions encoded in the state constitution. Our results indicate that de jure voting restrictions
reduce black registration but that black disfranchisement starts well before 1890 and is more intense
where a black majority represents a threat to the de facto power of white elites. Moreover, the effect
of race becomes stronger after 1890 suggesting that the de jure barriers may have served the
purpose of institutionalizing a de facto condition of disfranchisement.