![]() Sometimes, white owners of mines, farms, and factories simply needed cheap labor, and prisons provided it. Blacks were very often arrested on trumped-up charges or for minor offenses. Purges more often affected blacks than whites.ħ) Former prisoners: People who had gone to prison were often not allowed to vote. Often they could not register to vote again until after the election. Some voters would arrive at the polls and find that they were not registered to vote. That means they took people’s names off the official lists of voters. So blacks could not vote in the only elections that mattered.Ħ) Purges: From time to time, white officials purged the voting rolls. ![]() White Democrats said the Democratic Party was a “club” and did not allow black members. This means that the Democratic primary election was usually the only election that mattered.Īfrican Americans were not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary elections. (See the exhibit Political Parties in Black and White to learn the reason for this.) Republicans were almost never elected, especially in the Deep South. In the South from about 1900 to about 1960, the Democratic candidates usually won. The Republican or Democrat who gets the most votes is elected. In the general election, the winner of the Republican primary runs against the winner of the Democratic primary. In the primary, Republicans run against Republicans and Democrats run against Democrats. Of course, practically no blacks could vote before 1867, so the grandfather clause worked only for whites.ĥ) All-white primary elections: In the United States, there are usually two rounds of elections: first the primary, then the general. Many blacks and whites had no property and could not vote.Ĥ) Grandfather clause: People who could not read and owned no property were allowed to vote if their fathers or grandfathers had voted before 1867. They said blacks could not understand it, even when they clearly could.ģ) Property tests: In the South one hundred years ago, many states allowed only property owners to vote. White officials usually claimed that whites could understand what was read. A few were allowed if they could understand what was read to them. Most illiterate people were not allowed to vote. One hundred years ago, however, many people – black and white – were illiterate. Some whites used violence to punish those “ uppity” people and show other blacks what would happen to them if they voted.Ģ) Literacy tests: Today almost all adults can read. Still, some blacks passed the requirements to vote and took the risk. ![]() Whites used violence to intimidate blacks and prevent them from even thinking about voting. Often, they lost their jobs or were thrown off their farms. Some of these methods also prevented poor white people from voting.ġ) Violence: Blacks who tried to vote were threatened, beaten, and killed. White people in power used many methods to keep African Americans from voting. This was especially true in the Deep South: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Scholar-Griot: Russell Brooker, PhD Copy Editors: Adecola Adedapo and Fran Kaplan, EdD Photo Editor: Fran Kaplan, EdDįrom about 1900 to 1965, most African Americans were not allowed to vote in the South. ![]()
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