Populists and Race The relationship between the Populists and African Americans was complex, but after 1896 the political connection between the two shattered. In this cartoon, Isaac Smith, a black Republican, chides C. H. Johnson, a Populist leader, for supporting a North Carolina election law that disfranchised blacks. Smith reminds Johnson that Populists had campaigned for African American votes in the past, and accuses him of walking off without sharing any of the pie. North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill