Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era facts for kids

Stopping Black People from Voting After the Civil War

After the American Civil War, especially in the Southern United States, many laws and practices were created to stop Black citizens from registering to vote and casting their ballots. These rules were put in place by the states that used to be part of the Confederacy around the year 1900. Similar efforts also happened in Maryland, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

These actions were designed to go against the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was approved in 1870. This amendment said that states could not stop people from voting because of their race. The new laws were often written to sound fair on paper, so they wouldn't seem to break the Fifteenth Amendment. But in reality, they were used to prevent Black people from voting.

Starting in the 1870s, groups like the Ku Klux Klan used violence and fear to stop Black voters. Later, Southern politicians, mostly Democrats, were worried when Republicans and another group called Populists started working together and winning some elections. To keep their power, these white politicians made it very hard to register and vote. From 1890 to 1908, Southern states passed new laws and changed their constitutions. These changes made it much harder to vote, especially when white officials were in charge of voter registration and used the rules unfairly.

They succeeded in stopping most Black citizens, and many poor white people too, from voting in the South. The number of registered voters dropped a lot in each state. The Republican Party almost disappeared in the South for many years. This allowed the Southern Democrats to control all politics in the region.

In 1912, the Republican Party was divided. This helped Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat from the South, become President. He was the first Southern President since 1856. During his time as President, Wilson agreed to requests from his Southern cabinet members. He brought back racial segregation in federal government offices and allowed unfair hiring practices based on race. During World War I, Black soldiers were kept separate from white soldiers and often received worse training and equipment.

Stopping Black people from voting had a big impact on the United States Congress. Southern Democrats gained about 25 extra seats in Congress for many decades. Because Democrats were so strong in the South, their senators and representatives stayed in Congress for a long time. They became very powerful, controlling important committees and leading the national Democratic Party.

During the Great Depression, many national social programs were created. But because Black Americans were not represented in Congress, these programs often had gaps or treated Black people unfairly. Also, since Black Southerners were not on voter lists, they could not serve on juries in local courts. Juries across the South became all white.

This political unfairness finally ended after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. This law allowed the federal government to watch voter registration and elections in areas where people had been prevented from voting. It helped make sure that everyone's right to vote was protected. Even today, there are still challenges to voting rights, but attempts to limit voting for political reasons are not just in the South. Another way to gain political advantage is by changing election maps, known as gerrymandering. The Supreme Court of the United States often hears cases about these issues.

How It Started

The American Civil War ended in 1865. This marked the beginning of the Reconstruction era in the eleven states that had left the Union. In 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts. These laws set up military districts to oversee these states as they rebuilt.

During Reconstruction, Black people made up most of the population in Mississippi and South Carolina. They were about half the population in Louisiana. In four other former Confederate states, more than 40 percent of the people were Black. Also, the Reconstruction laws and state constitutions stopped many former Confederate white Southerners from holding office. In some states, they couldn't vote unless they took a loyalty oath. White Southerners were afraid of Black people having power and resisted the freedmen (formerly enslaved people) from using their political rights.

In 1867, Black men voted for the first time. By the 1868 United States presidential election, Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia were still not back in the Union. General Ulysses S. Grant was elected president partly because 700,000 Black men voted. In February 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was approved. It was meant to protect Black people's right to vote from states trying to take it away. At the same time, by 1870, all Southern states had stopped preventing former Confederates from voting, except for Arkansas.

White supremacist groups, who believed white people were superior, worked with Southern Democrats. They used threats, violence, and even killings to stop Black people from voting and using their civil and political rights in elections from 1868 to the mid-1870s. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed in 1865 in Tennessee. It quickly became a powerful secret group that used violence. The Klan started a campaign of fear against Black people and white people who supported them. Their violence included destroying property, physical attacks, killings, and lynchings. Teachers from the North who came to teach freedmen were sometimes attacked too.

The many murders and attacks by the Klan led Congress to pass laws to stop the violence. In 1870, the mostly Republican Congress passed the Enforcement Acts. These laws punished people who tried to stop Black people from voting. The Acts allowed the President to use the military to stop groups that took away people's rights. President Grant used these laws in parts of the Carolinas in late 1871. U.S. marshals watched state voter registrations and elections. These actions led to the first Klan group breaking up by the early 1870s.

New violent groups quickly appeared. A second wave of violence began, leading to over 1,000 deaths, usually Black people or Republicans. In 1876, the Supreme Court ruled in a case called United States v. Cruikshank. This ruling said that the Fourteenth Amendment, which protected people's rights, did not apply to actions by individuals, only to actions by state governments. This made it harder to stop individual acts of violence.

The violent groups that appeared in the mid to late 1870s were part of an ongoing fight in the South after the Civil War. These groups, made up of armed former Confederate soldiers, resisted social changes. They worked to stop Black Americans and other Republicans from voting and running for office. Such groups included the White League in Louisiana (1874) and the Red Shirts in Mississippi (1875). Unlike the Klan, these groups were more open and organized. They wanted to regain control of state governments and stop Republicans, including most Black people, from voting. They often used newspapers to spread fear. For example, in 1876, North Carolina had 20,000 men in rifle clubs. These groups were like the "military arm of the Democratic Party."

These groups were key in many Southern states to keep Black people from voting. They helped white Democrats take control of state legislatures and governorships in most Southern states in the 1870s. This was very clear during the controversial 1876 elections. Because of a national deal called the Compromise of 1877, the federal government removed its military forces from the South. This officially ended the Reconstruction era. By then, Southern Democrats had taken back control in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. This process of white Democrats regaining control was called "the Redemption." Some Black historians call the Compromise of 1877 "The Great Betrayal."

Stopping the Vote After Reconstruction

After the violence around elections continued, the Democratic-controlled Southern states passed laws to create barriers to voter registration for Black people and poor whites. This started with a poll tax in Georgia in 1877. Other measures followed, especially near the end of the century. This happened after an alliance between Republicans and Populists caused Democrats to lose some power for a short time.

To keep their power, Democrats worked to keep Black people (and most Republicans) out of politics. The results were clear across the South. After Reconstruction, Tennessee had a very competitive political system. But a tough election in 1888, full of corruption and violence, led to white Democrats taking over the state government. To make sure they stayed in power, they worked to stop Black people from voting. They sharply reduced Black votes by changing voter registration rules, requiring poll taxes, and making voting procedures more complicated.

In 1890, Mississippi adopted a new constitution. It required voters to pay poll taxes and pass a literacy test. White officials in charge of voter registration used the literacy test unfairly. These two rules effectively stopped most Black people and many poor white people from voting. The Supreme Court said these rules were okay in a case called Williams v. Mississippi (1898). Other Southern states quickly copied Mississippi's plan. By 1908, all former Confederate states had new constitutions or voting amendments. They created many barriers, such as requiring people to live in a place longer before voting, and using literacy and understanding tests. These tests were applied unfairly to minorities and were hard for poor people to pass.

These rules, including white primaries, created a confusing system that stopped most Black people and many poor white people from voting in Southern states. This continued until federal civil rights laws were passed in the mid-1960s. Voter registration and turnout dropped sharply across the South. Most Black people and many poor white people were kept out of the political system.

Senator Benjamin Tillman from South Carolina defended these actions in the Senate. He said that in his state, there were 135,000 Black voters and about 90,000 white voters. He asked how white voters could win if the vote was fair. He explained that they used an education test to stop Black people from voting. He claimed Black people were happier when they didn't get involved in politics.

The fact that so many people were stopped from voting caught the attention of Congress. As early as 1900, some members suggested taking away some of the South's seats in Congress. This was because the number of seats was based on the total population, but many people in the South couldn't vote. So, white Southerners had more power in Congress than the number of voters they actually represented. However, Congress did not act on this. The Southern Democrats had enough power to stop such actions. For decades, white Southern Democrats had many seats in Congress, even though they had stopped millions of Black and white citizens from voting. These Southern Democrats formed the "Solid South," a powerful voting group in Congress until the mid-20th century. Their representatives were re-elected many times and controlled important committees in Congress. This power allowed them to control rules, money, and to defeat bills that would make lynching a federal crime.

New State Constitutions (1890-1908)

Even though white Southerners complained about Reconstruction, several Southern states kept most of their Reconstruction constitutions for more than twenty years. In some states, the number of Black people elected to local offices reached its highest point in the 1880s, even after Reconstruction ended. They had influence at the local level, but they didn't win many statewide or national positions. Later, state governments passed strict laws or constitutions that made voter registration and election rules more complex.

Since literacy tests and other rules could be used unfairly, these changes greatly limited voting for most Black people and often for many poor white people. Voter lists dropped across the South into the new century.

Florida approved a new constitution in 1885. It included rules for poll taxes as a requirement to register and vote. From 1890 to 1908, ten of the eleven Southern states rewrote their constitutions. All of them included rules that limited voter registration and voting. These included poll taxes, longer residency requirements (meaning you had to live in a place longer), and unfair literacy tests.

Black people had greatly improved their education. By 1891, only 58 percent of Black people could not read or write, while 31 percent of white people in the South could not. Some states used grandfather clauses to let white voters avoid literacy tests completely. Other states required Black voters to pass literacy and knowledge tests given by white officials. These officials often used their own judgment and rejected most Black voters. By 1900, most Black people could read, but even many well-educated Black men still "failed" these tests.

Historians have noted that the main reason for these voting restrictions came from wealthy white people in the "black belt" areas (where Black people were the majority). Besides wanting to keep white people in charge, these rich landowners and business leaders were also worried about poor and uneducated white people voting. They stopped these poor white people from voting just as willingly as they stopped Black people. The goal of stopping people from voting was due to several reasons. These included competition between rich and poor white people, and a desire to prevent poor white and Black Americans from working together, as seen in the Populist-Republican alliances.

With the new constitutions, Southern states passed rules that stopped large parts of their populations from voting. They did this by finding ways around the U.S. Constitution's protections. While their voter registration rules applied to everyone, in practice they stopped most Black people from voting. In states like Alabama, these rules also removed "less educated, less organized, more impoverished whites as well." This ensured that the Democratic Party would control the South for most of the 20th century.

The new rules in state constitutions almost completely stopped Black people from voting. It's estimated that in the late 1930s, less than one percent of Black people in the Deep South were registered to vote. Secondly, the Democratic state governments passed Jim Crow laws. These laws were meant to show white supremacy, create racial segregation in public places, and treat Black people as second-class citizens. A famous court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) said that "separate but equal" facilities, like on trains, were legal. The new constitutions passed many Supreme Court challenges. When a specific restriction was overturned by the Supreme Court, states quickly found new ways to stop most Black people from voting, such as the white primary. Democratic Party primary elections became the only important elections in Southern states.

For the national Democratic Party, the situation after Reconstruction created a powerful Southern region that was helpful for gaining power in Congress. However, before President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the "Solid South" stopped the national party from making progress on some social programs. Woodrow Wilson, one of only two Democrats elected president between Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the first Southerner elected after 1856. He benefited from Black people being stopped from voting and the Republican Party being weakened in the South. Soon after becoming president, Wilson ordered the segregation of federal offices in Washington, D.C., which had been integrated during Reconstruction.

Examples of Stopping the Vote

Black Populations in Southern States (1900)

Louisiana

In 1896, Louisiana had about the same number of Black and white people. There were 130,334 Black voters registered. In 1898, Louisiana state lawmakers passed a new constitution. It required people to pass a literacy test in English or their native language to register to vote. Or, they had to prove they owned $300 worth of property. White officials gave the literacy tests. The constitution also included a grandfather clause. This allowed white people who couldn't read to vote if their grandfather or father had voted before January 1, 1867. Separate lists were kept for white and Black voters, making it easy for white officials to discriminate. The 1898 constitution also required people to live in the state, county, and local area for a longer time before voting. This hurt poor people who often moved for work.

These changes had a terrible effect on Black voters in Louisiana. By 1900, the number of registered Black voters dropped from 130,334 to just 5,320. By 1910, only 730 Black people were registered, which was less than 0.5% of eligible Black men. In 27 out of 60 parishes (counties), not a single Black voter was registered.

North Carolina

In 1894, a group of Republicans and the Populist Party gained control of the North Carolina state government. They won the ability to elect two U.S. Senators and several U.S. Representatives. This group made big gains in the 1896 election. Republican Daniel Lindsay Russell became governor in 1897, the first Republican governor since 1877. This election also led to more than 1,000 Black officials being elected or appointed, including George Henry White to Congress in 1897.

In the 1898 election, Democrats ran a campaign based on white supremacy and stopping Black people from voting. This harsh campaign was led by Furnifold McLendel Simmons and Josephus Daniels, a newspaper editor. The Republican/Populist group broke apart, and Democrats won the 1898 and 1900 elections in North Carolina. Simmons was elected as a U.S. Senator in 1900 and held office until 1931.

Democrats used their power to stop minorities, mainly Black people, from voting. They wanted to make sure the Democratic Party would not be challenged again. They passed laws limiting voter registration. In 1900, Democrats added a constitutional amendment that required a longer residency period before registration. It also added an education test (which officials could use unfairly) and required paying a poll tax in advance. A grandfather clause allowed those who could vote on January 1, 1867, to be exempt from the poll tax. The state government also passed Jim Crow laws that created racial segregation in public places and transportation.

The result in North Carolina was that Black voters were completely removed from voter lists by 1904. It's estimated that 75,000 Black men lost their right to vote. In 1900, Black people made up about 33% of the state's population. The growth of the successful Black middle class slowed down. In North Carolina and other Southern states, the white supremacy campaign made it seem like the Black middle class didn't exist to white North Carolinians.

Virginia

In Virginia, Democrats tried to stop Black people from voting in the late 1800s. This happened after a group of white and Black Republicans, along with some Populist Democrats, gained power. This group was called the Readjuster Party. The Readjuster Party controlled the state from 1881 to 1883. They elected a governor and controlled the state government, which also elected a U.S. Senator. Like in North Carolina, state Democrats were able to divide the Readjuster supporters by appealing to white supremacy. After regaining power, Democrats changed state laws and the constitution in 1902 to stop Black people from voting. They approved the new constitution in the state government and did not let the public vote on it. Voting in Virginia dropped by almost half because Black people were stopped from voting. White Democratic control in Virginia lasted for 80 years. It only ended in the late 1960s after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed and enforced.

Border States: Failed Attempts to Stop the Vote

The five border states (Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri) were slave states like the Confederate states. These border states also passed laws requiring racial segregation between the 1880s and 1900s. However, they were never able to stop Black people from voting to a significant degree. Most Border States did try to do so in the 1900s.

It was complicated why these attempts failed in the Border States, while they succeeded for over half a century in former Confederate states. In the 1900s, Maryland was strongly divided between those who supported and opposed stopping Black people from voting. Maryland also had a large and increasingly educated Black community, especially in Baltimore. This city had many free Black people before the Civil War, and they had built economic and political power. The state government passed a poll tax in 1904, but it faced strong opposition and was removed in 1911. Even with support from conservative white people, attempts to stop Black people from voting failed three times in 1905, 1908, and 1910. The last vote was the most decisive.

In Kentucky, Lexington's city government passed a poll tax in 1901, but it was declared illegal by state courts. Six years later, a new effort by the state government to stop Black people from voting failed. This was because the Republican Party was very well organized in the parts of the state that supported the Union during the Civil War.

Methods Used to Stop Voting

Poll Taxes

Proof of paying a poll tax was required to register to vote in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia (1877), North and South Carolina, Virginia (until 1882 and again from 1902), and Texas (1902). The Texas poll tax required voters to pay between $1.50 and $1.75 to register. This was a lot of money at the time and a big barrier for working-class and poor people. Georgia created a cumulative poll tax in 1877. Men of any race, aged 21 to 60, had to pay money for every year since they turned 21, or since the law started.

Poll tax requirements applied to white people as well as Black people, and they also hurt poor citizens. Many states required the tax to be paid at a different time than the election. Then, voters had to bring receipts with them to the polls. If they couldn't find their receipts, they couldn't vote. Also, many states added other complex record-keeping rules for registration and voting. These were especially hard for sharecroppers and tenant farmers to follow, as they moved often.

The poll tax was sometimes used alone or with a literacy test. In North Carolina in 1900, a type of grandfather clause exempted men who could vote on January 1, 1867, from the poll tax. This excluded all Black people in the state, who did not have the right to vote before that date.

Educational and Character Requirements

Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee created an education requirement. A local official would review a voter's qualifications. In 1898, Georgia rejected this idea.

Alabama leaders at first worried that white people who couldn't read would lose their votes. But after the state government said the new constitution would not stop any white voters from voting, Alabama passed an education requirement. It was approved by voters in November 1901. Its special feature was the "good character clause" (also known as the "grandfather clause"). A board in each county could register "all voters under the present [previous] law" who were veterans or their descendants, and "all who are of good character and understand the duties and obligations of citizenship." This gave the board the power to approve voters case by case. In practice, they allowed many white people to vote but rejected both poor white people and Black people. Most Black people had been enslaved and could not have served in the military.

South Carolina, Louisiana (1889), and later, Virginia included an education requirement in their new constitutions. In 1902, Virginia adopted a constitution with an "understanding" clause as a literacy test to use until 1904. Also, the application for registration had to be written by the applicant in their own handwriting and in front of the official. So, someone who couldn't write, couldn't vote.

Eight Box Law

By 1882, Democrats were firmly in power in South Carolina. Republican voters were mostly in the counties of Beaufort and Georgetown, where most people were Black. Because the state had a large Black majority population (nearly 60% in 1890), white Democrats had small leads in many counties. They feared that Black Republican voters might become powerful again. To remove this threat, the South Carolina General Assembly created an indirect literacy test called the "Eight Box Law."

This law required a separate box for ballots for each office. A voter had to put the ballot into the correct box, or it wouldn't count. The ballots could not have party symbols on them. They had to be the correct size and type of paper. Many ballots were rejected unfairly because they were slightly different from the rules. Ballots could also be rejected if there were more ballots in a box than registered voters.

The multiple-ballot box law was challenged in court. On May 8, 1895, Judge Nathan Goff said the law was unconstitutional. But in June 1895, a higher court overturned this decision. A special meeting for the constitution took place from September 10 to December 4, 1895. With the new constitution, South Carolina adopted the Mississippi Plan until January 1, 1898. Any male citizen could register if he could read a part of the constitution or convince the election official that he understood it when read to him. Those who registered this way would remain voters for life. Under the new constitution and unfair literacy practices, many Black voters were removed from the registration lists. By 1896, in a state where Black people made up nearly 60% of the population, only 5,500 Black voters had managed to register.

Grandfather Clause

States also used grandfather clauses to allow white people who couldn't pass a literacy test to vote. This rule allowed a man to vote if his grandfather or father had voted before January 1, 1867. At that time, most African Americans had been enslaved. Even free people of color and freedmen (formerly enslaved people) were not allowed to vote until 1870.

North Carolina's constitutional amendment of 1900 exempted men who could vote as of January 1, 1867, from the poll tax. This was another type of grandfather clause. Virginia also used a similar rule.

In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Supreme Court said that Oklahoma's "old soldier" and "grandfather clause" exemptions from literacy tests were illegal. These rules had stopped Black people from voting, just like in many Southern states. This decision affected similar rules in the constitutions of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia. Oklahoma and other states quickly passed new laws that created different rules for voter registration that still worked against Black people and minorities. Guinn was the first of many cases where the NAACP challenged unfair election rules.

In Lane v. Wilson (1939), the Supreme Court said an Oklahoma rule designed to stop Black people from voting was illegal. This rule had replaced the one struck down in Guinn. This new rule permanently stopped everyone who was qualified to vote but had not registered in a 12-day period in 1916. It also excluded those who had voted in 1914. Even though the law didn't mention race, the Court struck it down partly because it relied on the 1914 election, when voters had been discriminated against under the rule from Guinn.

White Primaries

Around the year 1900, white members of the Democratic Party in some Southern states created rules that stopped Black people and other minorities from participating in party primary elections. These became common for all elections. Since the Democratic Party was the main party and the only competitive voting happened in the primaries, stopping minority voters from participating in primaries was another way to keep them out of politics. Court challenges overturned the white primary system. But many states then passed laws that allowed political parties to set their own rules, such as the white primary. Texas, for example, passed such a state law in 1923. It was used to stop Mexican Americans as well as Black Americans from voting. It survived challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court until the 1940s.

Effects and Challenges

Supreme Court Decisions in the 1900s

Black Americans and their supporters worked hard to regain their right to vote. Booker T. Washington, known for his approach of working with white society, asked supporters in the North to help pay for legal challenges against stopping Black people from voting and segregation. He raised a lot of money and helped arrange legal representation for some cases.

In its ruling in Giles v. Harris (1903), the Supreme Court of the United States effectively upheld Southern voter registration rules when dealing with a challenge to Alabama's constitution. The Court's decision said the rules were not aimed at Black people and therefore did not take away their rights. This has been called the "most important ignored decision" in constitutional history.

Even when Black plaintiffs won cases in the Supreme Court, states quickly found other ways to keep them out of politics. It wasn't until later in the 1900s that legal challenges to stopping people from voting started to succeed more often in the courts.

When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909, this group, made up of both Black and white people, began to provide money and strategy for lawsuits about voting rights. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund organized many cases to challenge the many barriers of segregation, including rules that stopped people from voting. The NAACP also worked to educate the public, lobby Congress, organize protests, and encourage writing and theater to reach people. NAACP chapters were formed in cities across the country, and membership grew quickly in the South. The American Civil Liberties Union also represented people in some cases about voting rights.

Successful Challenges

In Smith v. Allwright (1944), the Supreme Court looked at a Texas case and ruled against the white primary. The state government had allowed the Democratic Party to make its own rules. The 1944 court ruling said this was unconstitutional because the state had failed to protect the voting rights of its citizens.

After the 1944 ruling, civil rights groups in major cities quickly started to register Black voters. For example, in Georgia, only 20,000 Black people had managed to register to vote in 1940. After the Supreme Court decision, the All-Citizens Registration Committee (ACRC) in Atlanta started organizing. By 1947, they and others had helped 125,000 Black Americans register, which was 18.8 percent of those old enough to vote. Across the South, Black voter registration steadily increased from less than 3 percent in 1940 to 29 percent in 1960 and over 40 percent in 1964. However, even in 1964, gains were very small in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana (outside of some areas), and parts of Georgia. They were also limited in most other rural areas.

Each legal victory was followed by white-controlled state governments trying new ways to control Black voting. In the 1940s, Alabama passed a law to give white officials more power in testing applicants for understanding and literacy. In 1958, Georgia passed a new voter registration law. It required people who couldn't read to pass "understanding tests" by correctly answering 20 out of 30 questions about citizenship. Black people had made big improvements in education, but the individual white officials were the only ones who decided if a voter answered correctly. In practice, officials disqualified most Black voters, whether they were educated or not. For example, in Terrell County, which was 64% Black, only 48 Black Americans were able to register to vote in 1958 after the law passed.

Civil Rights Movement

The NAACP's steady progress with individual court cases was often stopped by Southern Democrats. They continued to resist and pass new laws to prevent Black people from voting. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, ordinary citizens became activists across the South. Many Black churches and their leaders led these efforts, joined by young and older activists from Northern states. Nonviolent protests and demonstrations happened in many Southern cities. These often led to violent reactions from white bystanders and authorities. The moral fight of the Civil Rights Movement gained national media attention and growing demand for change across the country.

Widespread violence against the Freedom Riders in 1961 was shown on television and in newspapers. The murders of activists in Alabama in 1963 gained support for the activists' cause nationwide. President John F. Kennedy introduced civil rights laws to Congress in 1963 before he was killed.

President Lyndon B. Johnson took up the cause. In January 1964, Johnson met with civil rights leaders. On January 8, during his first State of the Union address, Johnson asked Congress to "let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined." On January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was approved. This amendment stopped the use of poll taxes in national elections.

On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The three were volunteers helping to register Black voters as part of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. Forty-four days later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation found their bodies buried in a dam. The Neshoba County deputy sheriff Cecil Price and 16 others, all Ku Klux Klan members, were charged with the murders. Seven were found guilty. The investigation also found the bodies of several Black men whose deaths had never been reported or investigated by white law enforcement officials.

When the Civil Rights Bill came before the Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, a group of 18 Southern Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator, led by Richard Russell, tried to stop its passage by talking for a very long time (a filibuster). Russell said they would fight any measure that would bring about "social equality" or "mixing of the races" in their Southern states.

After 57 working days of filibuster and several compromises, the Senate had enough votes (71 to 29) to end the debate. This was the first time that Southern senators had failed to win with such tactics against civil rights bills. On July 2, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The Act stopped segregation in public places and made it illegal to apply voter registration requirements unfairly. It did not directly ban literacy tests, which had been used to disqualify Black and poor white voters.

As the United States Department of Justice has stated: "By 1965, strong efforts to break the hold of state laws that stopped people from voting had been going on for some time, but they had only achieved small success. In some areas, they had almost no effect. The murder of voting-rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, gained national attention, along with many other acts of violence and terrorism. Finally, the attack on March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on their way to the state capitol in Montgomery, convinced the President and Congress to overcome Southern lawmakers' resistance to effective voting rights legislation. President Johnson called for a strong voting rights law, and hearings began soon after on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965."

Passed in 1965, this law made it illegal to use literacy tests as a requirement to register to vote. It allowed local voters to get help from the federal government and for federal officials to monitor areas that historically had low voter turnouts. This was to make sure that new measures were not taken against minority voters. It provided for federal enforcement of voting rights. African Americans began to participate in the formal political process, most in the South for the first time in their lives. Since then, they have won many seats and offices at local, state, and federal levels.

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See also

In Spanish: Segregación en la reconstrucción para niños