Readjuster Party

Petersburg County · dedicated 2021 · 120 W. Bank St.

The Readjuster Party, a biracial coalition led by former Confederate general William Mahone, won control of the Virginia General Assembly in 1879. The party's main objective, accomplished in 1882, was to refinance the state’s massive antebellum debt and increase funding for public education. The Readjusters also abolished the poll tax, eliminated whipping as a punishment for crime, and established what is now Virginia State University. African American support for the party, cemented at a convention at the Academy of Music on this site in 1881, was crucial to its success. The Readjusters lost the General Assembly in 1883 after Democrats campaigned on white fears of African American power.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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