Struggle for the Right to Vote

Betty Diaz-Holmes

In 1789, African-Americans were defined in the Constitution as 3/5s of a person for counting representation, and could not vote at all. In 1865, following the Civil War, African –Americans were given the right to vote and the "3/5s clause" was rescinded. This was the 14^th and 15^th Amendment which stated: "the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Which meant, that states couldn’t deny the right to vote to those who had been slaves?

In 1866 after the Civil War and during the period of Reconstruction, 2 African-Americans won seats in the Massachusetts Legislature. It is the first time in the history of the United States that Black representatives had participated in this branch of American government and in 1869; a Black American diplomat was elected as minister to Haiti.

In 1870, the fifteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified making it legal for Black males to vote. Also during this time Joseph Hayne Rainey was the first Black elected to the U. S. House of Representatives and Hiram Revels is the first Black elected to the U. S. Senate.

For some 90 years African-Americans continued the fight for the right to vote. But, while the Supreme Court voted in favor of African-Americans having the right to vote, the federal government did nothing to see that it was accomplished and Whites in the South used all sorts of scare tactics commonly known as Jim Crow Laws to keep African-Americans away from the polling places in spite of the Supreme Court ruling. In 1871, The Second Enforcement Act is passed to enforce rights granted to African-Americans by the amended Constitution of 1870.

So while the 15^th Amendment granted African-Americans the right to vote, they encountered roadblocks such as the "literacy laws," which required that a person be able to read before they could register to vote. Ironically, it also stated that if your grandfather had voted, then you could vote. Since grandfather had been a slave and never learned to read so did not vote, how could you vote? With most African-Americans being the product of slavery and being denied schooling, that pretty much stopped their opportunity to vote. Then there was the poll tax. States passed laws requiring people pay money before they could vote. This shut out African-Americans and poor Whites. African-Americans also found registration difficult. The registration offices were open during working hours and closed at lunch time, working people couldn’t get away from their jobs to register. So, during the years between 1870 and 1965 very few African-Americans were afforded the right to vote. There were many cases before the Supreme Court, mostly in southern states, attempting to get these roadblocks removed.