Southern Voting Barriers Essay

The 15th amendment gave African American men the right to vote by saying that the” right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Sadly, African American men wouldn’t be able to exercise this right for almost a whole century. Using literacy tests, poll taxes, and other methods Southern states could prevent African Americans from voting. It took the passing of Voting Rights Act of 1965 before most African Americans in the South could vote. Woman went

The Fifteenth Amendment gave black males over the age of 21 the right to vote. However, southern states set up poll taxes and literacy test in order to keep most blacks from voting. In order to keep the white votes they set up the grandfather clause, which allowed the seventy-five percent of the poor illiterate white people to still vote if they were the son or grandson of someone who was eligible to vote before 1867.

- Congress passed a 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction there of, are citizens of the United States and of the states in which they reside," thus repudiating the Dred Scott ruling which had denied slaves their right of citizenship. The 15th amendment provided that, “The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be be denied or abridged by the United States or any states on the account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

The Act has undergone several changes and additions since its passage, but the U.S. Supreme Court found a key provision of the Act unconstitutional in 2013. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.” (Staff 3). In the article, Voting Rights Act, author Staff states, “The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.” (Staff 2). Even though all these efforts and laws were made to give everyone a fair and equal chance to vote, there are still many restrictions and setbacks everywhere in today 's society and the major ones are Voter ID laws, Voter registration restrictions, State felon disenfranchisement policies, Purging of Voter Rolls, Transgender Disenfranchisement, Disinformation about Voting Procedures, Inequality in Election Day Resources, and Caging Lists.

The amendment stated that every person who had been born, or had established themselves in the United States, was to officially be treated as a citizen. This amendment was designed to protect blacks’ rights in Southern states. The states were no longer allowed to reduce the civil liberties of the country’s citizens. This meant that freedmen were recognized as citizens of the United States, and they were to be given the same rights and privileges that had been given to white men. Many Southerners were enraged that African Americans had the opportunity to vote. What angered them even further was the power Congress had to limit the congressional representation of their state if they denied any persons their right to vote based on

African Americans were almost completely subjugated throughout the states and many had been brutally beaten. Even after adding the 15th Amendment to the constitution, which gave all men, regardless of race or color, the right to vote, many states continued to use numerous different methods to prevent African Americans from voting.

The Fifteenth Amendment granted black men to vote. Put emphasis on men because at this time women still couldn't vote.This amendment would not be fully followed until almost a century. What the government did was that they made a literacy test so difficult that no slave could pass because they had no education. So no blacks could vote really for a long time. So to loop their loophole that made a rule called the Grandfather Clause. This made if your grandfather could vote you did not have to take the literacy test. So every white person's grandfather could vote since they lived in england. So this rule did not apply to blacks since their grandfathers were black and could not vote. One of the main reasons that they made this rule is because

Following the Civil War and freeing of slaves all over America a new question arose: Should black people be able to vote? Further, were they even citizens in the fullest sense? Now freed from slavery, black Americans found themselves in a political limbo where they were no longer property but not fully citizens. In an effort to extend protection from discrimination at the poll booth, an amendment to the Constitution was passed declaring it unlawful to deny voting on account of race. This amendment, however, was met with unprecedented resistance. Suppression of the black vote was just one step in preventing black Americans from being treated as citizens.

As said in PBS, “Literacy tests were used to keep people of color -- and, sometimes, poor whites -- from voting, and they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration” (The Rise and Fall of jim crow). They would give people that wanted rights a test on American history or laws If a black person went to take the test they would give them a harder test. Sometimes people trying ti gain rights could not even read in english. Also a lot of the blacks did not have a great education at the time so it made it extremely difficult for them. The Literacy test were unfair to some people that wanted

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".

“…Jim Crow constitution was held before it went into force, the effects were immediate and profound for back voters as well as white ones, despite Glass’s claims,” stated by the article. Therefore, by the end of 1902 registrars and literacy test had limited 21,000, all coming with a conclusion that 147,000 that were register were eliminated, and three years later the new poll tax cut that number in half. Lastly, in 1915 the 15th Amendment struck down the grandfather clause with the help of the Supreme Court of the United States, and soon it also abolished state and local poll taxes in 1966. “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated literacy test and required Virginia and other states to seek approval from a federal court or the U.S attorney general before implementing changes to its election

The grandfather clause was one of these racist laws. This law stated that an individual was not allowed to vote if their grandfather was unable to vote in slavery days. Luckily the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down. Sadly, however other rulings by the courts like William v. Mississippi, (1898) allowed states to add poll taxes and require literacy tests to voting requirements. These laws dramatically reduced the amount

The only way any men were to be exempted from this clause was if his father or grandfather were to have voted previous to 1867. Being that African Americans’ ancestors were slaves, they were not able to be exempted thus they had to pass the tests, pay the tax, and pass any other requirements thrown at them. It was not until June 21, 1915 that the court declared it unlawful, leaving way for African Americans to vote.

Blacks like other citizens of America were considered foreigners in their own country. Black codes were implemented to control black men and women. They were not allowed to vote, or own property. If they did have their own property, it was rented land from former slave owners. In order to keep the vote amongst the white men, they sought to disenfranchise the black man. “However, in order to maintain ascendency amongst the blacks, it was desirable and expedient to keep the negro from voting.” As a result, poll taxes, literacy tests, property qualification and grandfather clauses were applied. If they passed the following tests, they were still denied the right to vote. The Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror prevented many blacks from voting. Other methods such as manipulation, deliberate theft of ballot boxes and incarceration also prevented blacks from voting. In A History of Suffrage in America, it said, “the real objection to black suffrage was not a dislike of an ignorant electorate, but a keen apprehension that negroes enjoying political power would utterly demoralize the state.” On the contrary, blacks felt although they were free, “slavery was not abolished until the black man has the ballot”. Along with disenfranchisement, came segregation. Black people had to deal with the notion that they were

In the Mississippi Voter Application Form and Literacy Test, it states “write in the space below a reasonable interpretation (the meaning) of the section of the constitution of Mississippi which you have just copied” (Mississippi Application 1). It was created to completely disenfranchise black voters, especially in the southern states where African-American literacy rates were extremely low. During the United States slavery era, African Americans either did not have access of did not have the opportunity to learn to become either more literate or even literate to some distinct standard of just being able to begin to learn how to read or write. African Americans were seriously repressed in physical and mental means during slavery. When the slaves were freed after the Civil War, they were granted the right to vote shortly after. African American schools had just started to open, churches were doing everything in their power to place African Americans in positions of power and education, but a large number of African Americans were still not literate enough to pass the unjustifiable literacy tests. How would the officials justify that knowing this information was necessary for voting? The officials used it to prove competence in the ability to vote, but it was really only used to eliminate/disenfranchise