Driving force
Political Disenfranchisement
The systematic denial of the vote and political power.
On the timeline
- April 14, 1873The Slaughter-House Cases
The Supreme Court's first reading of the Fourteenth Amendment guts its "privileges or immunities" clause, weakening federal protection of rights.
- March 27, 1876United States v. Reese
The Court strikes down parts of the Enforcement Acts, narrowing federal power to protect Black voting and opening the path to disenfranchisement.
- June 21, 1915Guinn v. United States
The Supreme Court strikes down the "grandfather clause" used to disenfranchise Black voters.
- April 3, 1944Smith v. Allwright
The Supreme Court bans the all-white primary, a key tool of disenfranchisement.
- January 23, 1964The 24th Amendment
The poll tax in federal elections is abolished.
- August 22, 1964The MFDP challenge at Atlantic City
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the all-white delegation at the Democratic convention; Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony electrifies the country.
Resources
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations, the links rarely drawn together.
- part of (incoming)·EventThe Wilmington coup of 1898
The 1898 coup was the violent leading edge of the campaign to strip Black Southerners of the vote.
- caused (incoming)·EventThe "Mississippi Plan"
The Plan's violence became the template for stripping Black Southerners of the vote.
- connects to·EventShelby County v. Holder guts the Voting Rights Act
Gutting the Voting Rights Act revived the old project of denying Black political power.
- caused (incoming)·ThreadGreed, The Root
Stripping Black Americans of the vote protected the economic order that the vote could have changed.