Black suffrage in the United States

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Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 LyndonJohnson signs Voting Rights Act of 1965.jpg
Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965

African Americans were fully enfranchised in practice throughout the United States by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Prior to the Civil War and the Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, some Black people in the United States had the right to vote, but this right was often abridged or taken away. After 1870, Black people were theoretically equal before the law, but in the period between the end of Reconstruction era and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 this was frequently infringed in practice.

Contents

History

1876 cartoon illustrating opposition to black suffrage 'Of Course He Wants To Vote The Democratic Ticket' (October 1876), Harper's Weekly.jpg
1876 cartoon illustrating opposition to black suffrage
Houston dentist Lonnie E. Smith, plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Smith v. Allwright, casts his ballot in the 1944 Texas Democratic primary election (July 22, 1944). Lonnie-Smith-1944.jpg
Houston dentist Lonnie E. Smith, plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Smith v. Allwright , casts his ballot in the 1944 Texas Democratic primary election (July 22, 1944).

At the founding of the country, the right to vote was restricted to "gentlemen of property and standing"; most Black people did not own enough property to vote. Removal of the property requirements, so as to enfranchise poor whites, meant that Black people would be able to vote too, so the search began for other means to disenfranchise them. Early legal acts, like the Naturalization Act of 1790, granted naturalized citizenship to "free white person[s]...of good character", thus excluding slaves, free Black people, Native Americans, indentured servants, and Asians. [1] [2] However, states were allowed to grant voting rights at the state level. Prior to the Civil War, free Black people had suffrage in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. However, the right to vote was rescinded in New Jersey (1807) [3] and Pennsylvania (1838). [4] New York State's Constitution of 1821 imposed a heavy property ownership requirement on Black voters (only), in effect disenfranchising almost all of them.

During this time, abolitionists sought to end slavery, and the call for suffrage grew. The 1857 Dred Scott decision held that persons of African heritage were not U.S. citizens. Rather than settling the issue, as President Buchanan hoped, it produced outrage and is a major item among the causes of the Civil War.

After the Civil War, the Fifteenth Amendment gave all males the vote, but in practice Black people still faced obstacles. Some of the "Black Codes" passed shortly after the legal abolition of slavery explicitly prevented Black people from voting. The Enforcement Acts increased federal penalties for voter intimidation, particularly by white terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. [5]

Black people seeking suffrage were often met with violence and disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era ended and there were no longer federal troops enforcing Negro rights in the states of the former Confederacy. The 1873 Colfax massacre occurred when white locals fought with Black people and federal troops over black voting in Grant Parish, Louisiana. In United States v. Cruikshank (1876), the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated some of the Enforcement Acts, ruling that the federal government could only intervene to prevent discrimination by state actors. In United States v. Reese (1876), the Court upheld voting requirements, such as literacy tests, which do not explicitly discriminate on the basis of race. Jim Crow laws enforcing legal racial segregation at the state and local level in the Southern United States [6] were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by Black people during the Reconstruction Era. [7]

Black people continuously worked towards overcoming these barriers. A group of black activists formed the Niagara Movement in 1905, rebuking the 1895 Atlanta Compromise of Booker T. Washington and issuing a declaration that demanded universal male suffrage. From the Niagara Movement came the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, formed in 1910, which pursued voting rights mostly through the courts. In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Supreme Court struck down a grandfather clause that functionally exempted only white people from literacy tests. The Court ruled against white primaries in Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. Condon (1932), upheld white primaries in Grovey v. Townsend (1935), and finally banned them with Smith v. Allwright (1944) and Terry v. Adams (1953). In Breedlove v. Suttles (1937), The Court upheld the constitutionality of a poll tax requirement for voting. [5]

The Civil Rights Movement brought renewed attention to black voting rights. Florida voting rights activists Harriette Moore and Harry T. Moore were assassinated by the KKK in 1951. In Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960) the Supreme Court struck down a plan to redraw the district lines of Tuskegee, Alabama, on the grounds that it would disenfranchise black voters. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed in 1962–1964, banned poll taxes as a precondition for voting in federal elections. The Supreme Court ruled against state poll taxes in 1966 in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections . [5] Civil rights leaders began organized campaigns to register black voters, including the federally endorsed Voter Education Project. A particularly intense voting rights struggle in Mississippi led to the death of Medgar Evers in 1963 and of three civil rights volunteers during the Freedom Summer campaign in 1964. Organizers also created the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the white-dominated Mississippi Democratic Party. In Alabama, the highly publicized Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 met with a violent response, bringing more scrutiny to suppression of black voters. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited a variety of discriminatory state voting practices. The Supreme Court upheld this law in the 1966 decision South Carolina v. Katzenbach . [8]

Since the 1960s, the practice of gerrymandering—drawing the boundaries of each Congressional district, which are redone after every census, so as to maximize white and minimize Black political power—has been identified as a threat to black voting rights in the U.S. [9] The Supreme Court limited the Gomillion decision in Mobile v. Bolden (1980), distinguishing between racist effects and racist intent, and prohibiting only the latter. The Court ruled in Shaw v. Reno (1993) that if a redistricting plan is "so bizarre on its face that it is 'unexplainable on grounds other than race'", it must be held to a "strict scrutiny" standard under the Fourteenth Amendment.[ further explanation needed ] The Court has since struck down redistricting plans for racial gerrymandering in Miller v. Johnson (1995), Bush v. Vera (1996), and several more cases. [10] However, the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), holding that the racist practices that necessitated the law in 1965 no longer existed in 2013. [6] Contrary to the Court's finding, jurisdictions then proceeded to make voting more difficult, closing polling places in Black neighborhoods, and requiring an official state ID to vote, something Black voters are less likely than white voters to have, while simultaneously closing offices where the IDs could be obtained. While claiming that these measures prevented voting fraud (which multiple investigations have found to be rare in the 21st-century United States), the clear result, and arguably the clear intent, was to reduce African-American voting in Southern states. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]

Black women's suffrage movement

Banner with the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs' motto. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Black women began to work for political rights in the 1830s in New York and Philadelphia. [19] Throughout the 19th century, black women like Harriet Forten Purvis, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper worked on black civil rights, like the right to vote. Black women had to fight for racial equality, as well as women's rights. They were often marginalized because of their race and their gender. [20] This led to the creation of groups like the National Association of Colored Women. Black women gained the legal right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. With women gaining the vote, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, black women became a powerful voting block. [21]

Even with having the amendment ratified Black women were kept from voting using violence and intimidation. Black women protested this in many ways. Some women such as Indiana Little marched to their local voting registrar office and demanded their right to vote. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution</span> 1870 amendment prohibiting denial of voting rights on the basis of race

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution</span> 1920 amendment mandating womens suffrage

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recognizing the right of women to vote. The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage in the United States, at both the state and national levels, and was part of the worldwide movement towards women's suffrage and part of the wider women's rights movement. The first women's suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878. However, a suffrage amendment did not pass the House of Representatives until May 21, 1919, which was quickly followed by the Senate, on June 4, 1919. It was then submitted to the states for ratification, achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption, and thereby went into effect, on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26, 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voting Rights Act of 1965</span> US federal legislation that prohibits racial discrimination in voting

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. Designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act sought to secure the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. The National Archives and Records Administration stated: "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the most significant statutory change in the relationship between the federal and state governments in the area of voting since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War".

Disfranchisement, also disenfranchisement or voter disqualification, is the restriction of suffrage of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing someone from exercising the right to vote. Disfranchisement can also refer to the revocation of power or control of a particular individual, community, or being to the natural amenity they have; that is to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, of some privilege or inherent immunity. Disfranchisement may be accomplished explicitly by law or implicitly through requirements applied in a discriminatory fashion, through intimidation, or by placing unreasonable requirements on voters for registration or voting. High barriers to entry to the political competition can disenfranchise political movements.

Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915), was a United States Supreme Court decision that found certain grandfather clause exemptions to literacy tests for voting rights to be unconstitutional. Though these grandfather clauses were superficially race-neutral, they were designed to protect the voting rights of illiterate white voters while disenfranchising black voters.

A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or being grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from the new rule are said to have grandfather rights or acquired rights, or to have been grandfathered in. Frequently, the exemption is limited, as it may extend for a set time, or it may be lost under certain circumstances; for example, a grandfathered power plant might be exempt from new, more restrictive pollution laws, but the exception may be revoked and the new rules would apply if the plant were expanded. Often, such a provision is used as a compromise or out of practicality, to allow new rules to be enacted without upsetting a well-established logistical or political situation. This extends the idea of a rule not being retroactively applied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voting rights in the United States</span>

Voting rights, specifically enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, have been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literacy test</span> Examination of a persons ability to read and write

A literacy test assesses a person's literacy skills: their ability to read and write. Literacy tests have been administered by various governments, particularly to immigrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Virginia</span> Principles, institutions, and law of political governance in the U.S. state of Virginia

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme over Virginia's laws and acts of government, though it may be superseded by the United States Constitution and U.S. federal law as per the Supremacy Clause.

Williams v. Mississippi, 170 U.S. 213 (1898), is a United States Supreme Court case that reviewed provisions of the 1890 Mississippi constitution and its statutes that set requirements for voter registration, including poll tax, literacy tests, the grandfather clause, and the requirement that only registered voters could serve on juries. The plaintiff, Henry Williams, claimed that Mississippi's voting laws were upheld with the intent to disenfranchise African Americans, thus violating the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court did not find discrimination in the state's laws because, even though the laws made discrimination possible, the laws themselves did not discriminate against African Americans. The court found that any discrimination toward African Americans was performed by the administrative officers enforcing the law and that there was no judicial remedy for this kind of discrimination.

Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 (1960), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that found an electoral district with boundaries created to disenfranchise African Americans violated the Fifteenth Amendment.

Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in the area of redistricting and racial gerrymandering. After the 1990 census, North Carolina qualified to have a 12th district and drew it in a distinct snake-like manner to create a "majority-minority" Black district. From there, Ruth O. Shaw sued to challenge this proposed plan with the argument that this 12th district was unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment under the clause of equal protection. In contrast, Reno, the Attorney General, argued that the district would allow for minority groups to have a voice in elections. In the decision, the court ruled in a 5–4 majority that redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause and on the basis that it violated the Fourteenth Amendment because it was drawn solely based on race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reconstruction Amendments</span> Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution

The Reconstruction Amendments, or the Civil War Amendments, are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870. The amendments were a part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South which occurred after the Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era</span> Post-civil war voter suppression efforts in the United States

Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era in the United States, especially in the Southern United States, was based on a series of laws, new constitutions, and practices in the South that were deliberately used to prevent black citizens from registering to vote and voting. These measures were enacted by the former Confederate states at the turn of the 20th century. Efforts were also made in Maryland, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Their actions were designed to thwart the objective of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1870, which prohibited states from depriving voters of their voting rights based on race. The laws were frequently written in ways to be ostensibly non-racial on paper, but were implemented in ways that selectively suppressed black voters apart from other voters.

United States v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214 (1876), was a voting rights case in which the United States Supreme Court narrowly construed the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides that suffrage for citizens can not be restricted due to race, color or the individual having previously been a slave.

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, "Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the Jim Crow laws were overturned in 1965. Formal and informal racial segregation policies were present in other areas of the United States as well, even as several states outside the South had banned discrimination in public accommodations and voting. Southern laws were enacted by white-dominated state legislatures (Redeemers) to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by African Americans during the Reconstruction era. Such continuing racial segregation was also supported by the successful Lily-white movement.

Black suffrage refers to black people's right to vote and has long been an issue in countries established under conditions of black minorities as well as, in some cases black majorities.

Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5, which requires certain states and local governments to obtain federal preclearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices; and subsection (b) of Section 4, which contains the coverage formula that determines which jurisdictions are subject to preclearance based on their histories of racial discrimination in voting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felony disenfranchisement in the United States</span> Prohibiting criminals from voting in elections in the United States

In the United States, a person may have their voting rights suspended or withdrawn due to the conviction of a criminal offense. The actual class of crimes that results in disenfranchisement vary between jurisdictions, but most commonly classed as felonies, or may be based on a certain period of incarceration or other penalty. In some jurisdictions disfranchisement is permanent, while in others suffrage is restored after a person has served a sentence, or completed parole or probation. Felony disenfranchisement is one among the collateral consequences of criminal conviction and the loss of rights due to conviction for criminal offense. In 2016, 6.1 million individuals were disenfranchised on account of a conviction, 2.47% of voting-age citizens. As of October 2020, it was estimated that 5.1 million voting-age US citizens were disenfranchised for the 2020 presidential election on account of a felony conviction, 1 in 44 citizens. As suffrage rights are generally bestowed by state law, state felony disenfranchisement laws also apply to elections to federal offices.

This is a timeline of voting rights in the United States, documenting when various groups in the country gained the right to vote or were disenfranchised.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Hymowitz; Weissman (1975). A History of Women in America. Bantam.
  2. ↑ Schultz, Jeffrey D. (2002). Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: African Americans and Asian Americans. Oryx Press. p. 284. ISBN   9781573561488 . Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  3. ↑ "No Racial Requirement". www.amrevmuseum.org. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Black Philadelphians Defend their Voting Rights, 1838". The American Yawp Reader. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 Swinney, Everette (1962). "Enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment, 1870–1877". Journal of Southern History. 28#2 (2): 202–218. doi:10.2307/2205188. JSTOR   2205188.
  6. 1 2 Fremon, David (2000). The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in American History . Enslow. ISBN   0766012972.
  7. ↑ Bruce Bartlett (January 8, 2008). Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past. St. Martin's Press. pp. 24–. ISBN   978-0-230-61138-2.
  8. ↑ Finkelman, Paul (2010). South Carolina v. Katzenbach. Vol. 4. Dallas, Tex: Schlager Group. ISBN   9781935306054. OCLC   500822815.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  9. ↑ Li, Michael; Royden, Laura (October 17, 2017). "Does the Anti-Gerrymandering Campaign Threaten Minority Voting Rights?". Brennan Center.
  10. ↑ See: Category:United States electoral redistricting case law
  11. ↑ Weiser, Wendy R. (June 17, 2014). "The State of Voting in 2014". Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  12. ↑ Herron, Michael C.; Smith, Daniel A. (May 2019). Race, Shelby County, and the Voter Information Verification Act in North Carolina (PDF). Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University College of Law . Retrieved March 27, 2022.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  13. ↑ Hariharan, Abishek (September 5, 2018). Shelby County v. Holder: Implications of a Weakened Voting Rights Act. New York City: Columbia University Law School . Retrieved March 27, 2022.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  14. ↑ Doubek, James; Inskeep, Steve (May 13, 2019). "Black Church Leaders In Georgia On The Importance Of 'Souls To The Polls'". NPR . Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  15. ↑ Brandeisky, Kara; Tigas, Mark (November 2013). "Which States Have Enacted Restrictions Since the Voting Rights Act Ruling?". The Atlantic . Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Warning Signs: The Potential Impact of Shelby County v. Holder on the 2016 U.S. Election" (PDF). New York City: American Civil Liberties Union. June 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  17. ↑ Fuller, Jaime (July 7, 2014). "How has voting changed since Shelby County v. Holder?". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Election 2016: Restrictive Voting Laws by the Numbers". Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  19. ↑ Gordon, Ann D. (1997). African American Women and the Vote 1837-1965. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 2, 27. ISBN   1-55849-058-2.
  20. ↑ Giddings, Paula J. (1984). Where and When I Enter... The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: William Morrow. pp. 64–83. ISBN   0688019439.
  21. ↑ Jones, Martha S. (2020). Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All. New York: Basic Books. ISBN   9781541618619.
  22. ↑ Royster, Briana Adline (2019). "Biographical Sketch of Indiana T. Little". search.alexanderstreet.com. Alexander Street. Archived from the original on December 8, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2021.

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