Final answer:
The campaign of violence and intimidation by Mississippi Democrats to prevent African American voting was part of the Mississippi Plan, culminating in acts like the Hamburg Massacre. This effort to maintain political control included groups like the Red Shirts and employed various methods of voter suppression, amid limited federal intervention.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Mississippi during the era of Reconstruction, Democrats used violence and intimidation to suppress African American voters to regain political control, a strategy known as the Mississippi Plan. This campaign of terror to discourage and prevent black participation in voting was undertaken by groups such as the Red Shirts, who launched attacks on African Americans seeking to exercise their voting rights. One particularly egregious act was the Hamburg Massacre, where a black militia parade ended in violence and the murder of black militiamen. In conjunction with such outright violence, corrupt practices like gerrymandering, property qualification laws, and fraudulent elections were also employed to minimize black suffrage. The federal government's intervention was limited due to concerns about overstepping state jurisdiction and potentially igniting a race war, despite the passage of the Enforcement Acts aimed at protecting voting rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.