Reading Questions
Reading Questions: Read the page and answer these questions
- Identify and explain some of the early success in politics immediately following Reconstruction.
- How did whites react to the early political success by African Americans?
- What were some of the ways that the Black vote was suppressed prior to the Civil Rights movement?
- How successful was the voter suppression?
- How are felon disenfranchised?
- What is gerrymandering? How is that voter suppression?
- How do voter IDs considered voter disenfranchisement?
- How is reducing polling places considered disenfranchisement?
- How is Not being able to vote by mail voting disenfranchisement?
Essential Question: What is the relationship between individual power and collective power as it relates to politics?
Black Representation in Congress After the Civil WarDuring Reconstruction (1867-1877) Congress passed the 14 and 15th Amendments granting freedmen the right to vote. This began a period of increased participation in the political system by black voters. During the state constitutional conventions held in 1867-69, Black and white Americans stood side by side for the first time in political life. Approximately 80% of eligible Black voters wold vote during this early period. Blacks formed the majority of voters in the south. Black voters formed an alliance with the new white republicans who had recently arrived from the north (called scallywags) to take control of state governments.
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In all, 16 African Americans served in the U.S. Congress during Reconstruction; more than 600 more were elected to the state legislatures, and hundreds more held local offices across the South. Hiram Revels became the first African American elected to the US Senate.
Southerners, unwilling to accept Black’s new political power, whites resorted to many methods to keep Southern Blacks from voting.
Response: Jim Crow Laws
In Response to the 14th and 15th Amendments, states began to pass Jim Crow Laws. These were state and local statutes that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death.
Six Ways People Were Kept From Voting
1) Violence: The new Southern governments confronted violent opposition from the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups. Blacks who tried to vote were threatened, beaten, and killed. Their families were also harmed. Sometimes their homes were burned down. Often, they lost their jobs or were thrown off their farms.
Whites used violence to intimidate blacks and prevent them from even thinking about voting. Still, some blacks passed the requirements to vote and took the risk. Some whites used violence to punish those “uppity” people and show other blacks what would happen to them if they voted.
Whites used violence to intimidate blacks and prevent them from even thinking about voting. Still, some blacks passed the requirements to vote and took the risk. Some whites used violence to punish those “uppity” people and show other blacks what would happen to them if they voted.
2) Literacy tests: Today almost all adults can read. One hundred years ago, however, many people – black and white – were illiterate. Most illiterate people were not allowed to vote. A few were allowed if they could understand what was read to them. White officials usually claimed that whites could understand what was read. They said blacks could not understand it, even when they clearly could.
3) Property tests: In the South one hundred years ago, many states allowed only property owners to vote. Many blacks and whites had no property and could not vote.
4) Grandfather clause: People who could not read and owned no property were allowed to vote if their fathers or grandfathers had voted before 1867. Of course, practically no blacks could vote before 1867, so the grandfather clause worked only for whites.
5) Poll taxes: In Southern states, people had to pay a tax to vote. The taxes were about $25 to $50 dollars in today’s money. Many people had extremely low incomes and could not afford this tax. This poll tax applied to all people who wanted to vote – black and white. There were ways for whites to get around other laws, but not around the poll tax. Many poor whites could not vote because of the poll tax.
6) Former prisoners: People who had gone to prison were often not allowed to vote. Blacks were very often arrested on trumped-up charges or for minor offenses. Sometimes, white owners of mines, farms, and factories simply needed cheap labor, and prisons provided it. This law kept many more blacks from voting than whites.
The Black Codes, voting suppression led to less political participation by African Americans including voting and running for office. Without the ability to impact legislation, segregation laws continued until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.
Voter Suppression Then And Now
read the article here
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