The Wasp — 1876 — page 32: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a satirical magazine cover from San Francisco dated August 26, 1876—an election year. The bottom cartoon's caption states: "How President Grant intends to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment in the Southern States at the coming election." The image depicts a chaotic scene of African Americans (depicted through racial caricature, standard for the era) being violently confronted or suppressed by armed white figures. The cartoon sarcastically critiques President Ulysses S. Grant's enforcement of voting rights protections for Black citizens under the Fifteenth Amendment. The satire suggests Grant's administration was *failing* to protect Black voters from Southern intimidation and violence during elections—a major political controversy of Reconstruction-era politics.