News & Commentary

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Historical Restrictions to Voting

U.S. Constitution / Slavery
When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, non-white men were counted as 3/5 of all other persons, women weren’t counted at all, and neither were allowed to vote. This ended for men when the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed and abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law for all men, and said governments can’t deny the right to vote based on race, color, or having been a slave. The right for women didn't come until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.
Jim Crow Laws
Southern states were livid at the passage of those three “Reconstruction Amendments.” So they passed “Jim Crow laws”to make it harder for black citizens to register and vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and laws prohibiting people with a criminal conviction from voting were specifically designed to suppress black political power.
20th Century Voter Suppression
Many religious and paramilitary groups enforced the suppression until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed and the U.S. put teeth into prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. The VRA resulted in the mass enfranchisement of racial minorities, most notably in the South, and is considered the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the

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