 However, the Colored Alliance was in rapid decline and black Republican politicians and newspapers were largely critical of the Southern Populists, whose claims of support for black civil rights were largely rhetorical and disingenuous.In most Southern states, the stronghold of Populism was in the old yeoman-dominated hill-country white belt regions, whose inhabitants played a leading role in the rebellions against Reconstruction, only to be marginalized by the old black belt planters allied with Northern capital and corporate interests, especially the railroads.The Populists opposed the convict lease system and denounced Democratic reliance on threats of 'Negro domination.'