Third Integrationist Phase
1875-1877
EARLY IN 1875, like the biblical prodigal son, Delany returned to the Republican Party fold. There seemed to be no other option left if he wanted to remain politically active. Although the conservatives achieved some measure of success at the local levels in the recently concluded elections in South Carolina, Radical Republicans retained control of the state government. His dramatic return was by no means an admission of guilt but an extraordinary display of courage and conviction. Delany took his antiradical crusade right back to where it started. Rather than succumb and surrender in the face of overwhelming opposition and political despair, he surged forward and confronted the radicals. The last election drove home one significant lesson that probably influenced his decision to return to the Republican Party. The overwhelming support blacks gave to the Republicans confirmed their dislike for the conservative alternative. Delany’s return, however, did not signal acknowledgment, de facto or otherwise, that his ideas were misguided or that he had done anything wrong. In fact, he had not reconciled himself to the policies of the radicals; nor had he so soon forgotten their persistent opposition to his political aspirations. In his judgment, therefore, the return was more appropriately an act of taking the fight right back to where it belonged. Neither were the radicals inclined easily to forget and forgive Delany’s negative and destructive utterances and reviews. As he himself recognized, the Independent Republican Movement (IRM)
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