Category Archives: Voting Rights and Invisibility
The 2013 Supreme Court Decision That Crippled The 1965 Voting Rights Act
America has a long history of passing legislation designed to protect and empower African Americans, then turning its back on that legislation, especially where the right to vote is concerned. Reconstruction Legislation: The 13th Amendment, ratified December 6, 1865, made slavery illegal in the United States, but it lacked the power to prevent the southern states from creating de facto slavery in the form of sharecropping, which kept freed slaves poor and subservient to rich […]
Continue readingMassacre in Colfax/Black Lives Matter
Aiyana Jones was seven years old when a policeman shot and killed her in her Detroit home. Two mistrials released the offending officer from any responsibility for her death. In December 2014, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund named 76 unarmed men, women, and children killed by police throughout the U.S. Aiyana was the youngest. First on the list was Amadou Diallo, killed in New York City on February 4, 1999. Again, the courts cleared the officers of all charges.On April […]
Continue readingVoting Rights–Native Americans
As the authors of the Constitution defined their new country, they struggled with the presence of indigenous people. Article 1, Section 2 states that Natives are not under the control of the United States, and therefore cannot be taxed. The Constitution also states that Congress has the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among several states, and with Indian tribes.” Thus, the leaders of the […]
Continue readingJim Crow’s Poll Taxes
After the Reconstruction period (1865 to 1877), Jim Crow laws (1890 to 1965) terrorized and oppressed black citizens in the South. The most effective and far-reaching laws were those that ignored the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution–the promise that all citizens have the right to vote. Many southern states disenfranchised African Americans, Native Americans, and poor whites with literacy tests, property requirements, and […]
Continue readingThe “Grandfather Clause”
“Mr. Solid South” (African American looks on as white voter writes on wall) Editorial cartoon–Harper’s Weekly Library of Congress In 1896, in unabashed defiance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Louisiana passed the “Grandfather clause” in order to keep former slaves and their descendants from voting. Amendments to the state constitution required would-be voters to be able to read and write English or […]
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