Voting Rights and the Grand Review (Nov. 1865)

While Gerald G. Eggert’s article in Pennsylvania History focuses on the experiences of Harrisburg’s African American community throughout a century, it also includes a short but interesting description of Harrisburg’s Grand Review in November 1865. The parade in Harrisburg was clearly an opportunity for that community to honor the African Americans who served in the USCT during the Civil War. Yet the Grand Review’s organizers had other important objectives as well. “These leaders hoped to use the occasion to build support for extending the suffrage once more to blacks,” as Eggert observes. African American men in Pennsylvania, however, were not able to vote until the 15th Amendment was adopted in 1870. Pennsylvania History, which is the official journal of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, is available through a digital archive that contains all of the issues published between 1934 and 2005. Eggert’s article is available here as PDF file – see page 16 for Eggert’s description of the Grand Review. (Note that Adobe Reader has to be installed on your computer in order to read this article.)