Voting is a right and a privilege for every person eighteen years old and older. I grew up in the South during the Civil Rights era. Segregationist Jim Crow Laws made it impossible for most Black and some poor white people to vote.
Many Southern white people continued to resist change and instituted voting laws that excluded Black voters. Literacy tests were created by government officials and the results were rigged by biased and racist registrars. Literacy tests were introduced in 1890 but were not deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court until the 1960s. Prior to this, the Supreme Court ruled that literacy tests were not necessarily a violation of the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed citizens the right to vote.
Literacy tests were deeply rooted in Jim Crow laws and used to disfranchise the minority vote. The tests were created with failure as the goal. They were to be given to voters of any race who were unable to provide proof they attained an education beyond the 5th grade. In some states, white applicants were not required to take the test or the officials passed the ones who did. The registrars were the sole judges and it was their opinion if a person passed or failed. Many college educated Black people failed while illiterate white people passed. White people were often excluded from taking it if they were of good moral character.
The literacy tests were used to determine if a voter was literate enough to vote. The tests varied by various states. Some focused on citizenship and laws, and some on logic. The test takers were given 10 minutes to answer 30 questions. One wrong answer meant a failing grade. Some states required potential voters to count the number of jelly beans in a jar. Examples of literacy tests can be found online.
There were many other ways used to suppress the vote for minorities and poor white people. Potential voters also had to pay poll taxes. These taxes were levied on people regardless of income and were passed in an effort to keep minorities and poor people from voting. In some states, only property owners could vote. The Grandfather clause allowed people to vote if their father or grandfather voted before 1867. This excluded Black people and other minorities. White officials purged some voter’s names from the list of voters. Black people were arrested for minor offenses or trumped up charges and therefore, ineligible to vote.
The local police often intimidated and harassed black people who tried to register to vote. The White Citizens Council inflicted economic retaliation against Black and other minorities who tried to vote. The White Citizens Council were opposed to the civil rights movement and used violence and murder to suppress black people. The hatred of white bigots influenced the masses of other white people. The White Citizens Council was founded by white supremacy businessmen in Mississippi in 1954 to oppose racial integration of public schools and voter registration of black people. The name was changed to the Citizens Council two years later and organizations grew across the South. The Ku Klux Klan created violence and mayhem.
I was too young to vote but I remember the tireless works of the civil rights and voting rights activists. I remember my parents and older siblings telling me about Tent City in Fayette County, near my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. In 1960, as a result of registering to vote, many black residents were evicted from their sharecropper homes. They moved into tents and some lived there for up to 2 years. During Freedom Summer of 1964 thousands of civil rights activities, many of them northern white students went to Mississippi and other Southern states to help black people register to vote. I remember that three college student activists were abducted and murdered. I remember voting and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. She was a plain spoken and civil rights activist from Mississippi. She was the organizer of Mississippi’s Freedom Summer. She was threatened, jailed, and beaten, but was successful in encouraging black people in Mississippi to register to vote.
In 1964, she helped co-found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to give Black people a voice. She traveled across Mississippi and registered people to vote. Three brave volunteers were killed. She and other activists traveled to the 1964 Democratic National Convention as a representative from Mississippi.
In March 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King selected Selma, Alabama to lead a non-violent voting rights march. Selma had a large majority of Black citizens who were prevented from voting by a white minority. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, several hundred civil rights leaders, to include John Lewis and other marchers, attempted to walk approximately 50 miles from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama. State troopers told them to turn around but they didn’t. The non-violent marchers were brutally attacked with clubs, whips and tear gas. Because of the violence, this was known as “Bloody Sunday”. This bloody attack created an image for the entire nation to see.
In 1964 the U.S. Constitution was amended to make poll taxes illegal. In 1965 Congress passed the voting rights act making it illegal to pass literacy tests, property tests and pay poll taxes in order to vote. Congress amended the Act five times to expand its protections. President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the voting rights act of 1965. This act was meant to overcome legal barriers at the state and local level that prevented Black people from voting.
For the next few days, the Selma to Montgomery Freedom March occupied the world’s attention. Black and white people walked and sang while Federal troops and the Alabama National Guard kept watch. A few hours after the march ended, Viola Liuzzo, white activist from Detroit was transporting some of the marchers back to Selma in her car. Suddenly, a car loaded with white men approached and gunshots rang out, killing her. The killers were members of the Ku Klux Klan. An all-white jury found them not guilty.
I will not forget the warriors who were on the battlefield fighting and giving their lives for our constitutional right to vote. Because of their efforts, all people have the right to vote. Regardless of race or socioeconomic status, our voice and vote counts. Don’t suppress your own right to vote.
References
ABHM. America’s Black Holocaust Museum. Voting Rights For Blacks And Poor Whites In The Jim Crow South. Scholar-Griot: Russell Booker, PhD. Website. Accessed October 14, 2020.
C.Eric Lincoln. November 1967. The Negro Pilgrimage In America. Bantam Pathfinder Books.