Grandfather Clauses and Their Impact on Voting Rights

Grandfather clauses were statutes that seven Southern states implemented in the 1890s and early 1900s to prevent African Americans from voting. The statutes allowed any person who had been granted the right to vote before 1867 to continue voting without needing to take literacy tests, own property, or pay poll taxes. The name â€Å"grandfather clause† comes from the fact that the statute also applied to the descendants of anyone who had been granted the right to vote before 1867. Since most African Americans were enslaved prior to the 1860s and did not have the right to vote, grandfather clauses prevented them from voting even after they had won their freedom from slavery. How the Grandfather Clause Disenfranchised Voters The 15th Amendment of the Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870. This amendment stated that the â€Å"right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.† In theory, this amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. However, black Americans had the right to vote in theory only. The Grandfather clause stripped them of their right to vote by requiring them to pay taxes, take literacy tests or constitutional quizzes, and overcome other barriers simply to cast a ballot. White Americans, on the other hand, could vote get around these requirements if they or their relatives had already had the right to vote prior to 1867—in other words, they were grandfathered in by the clause. Southern states such as Louisiana, the first to institute the statutes, enacted grandfather clauses even though they knew these statutes violated the U.S. Constitution, so they put a time limit on them in hopes that they could register white voters and disenfranchise black voters before the courts overturned the laws. Lawsuits can take years, and Southern lawmakers knew that most African Americans could not afford to file lawsuits related to grandfather clauses. Grandfather clauses weren’t just about racism. They were also about limiting the political power of African Americans, most of whom were loyal Republicans because of Abraham Lincoln. Most Southerners at the time were Democrats, later known as Dixiecrats, who had opposed Lincoln and the abolition of slavery. But grandfather clauses weren’t limited to Southern states and didn’t just target Black Americans. Northeast states like Massachusetts and Connecticut required voters to take literacy tests because they wanted to keep immigrants in the region from voting, since these newcomers tended to back Democrats during a time when the Northeast leaned Republican. Some of the South’s grandfather clauses may have even been based on a Massachusetts statute. The Supreme Court Weighs In: Guinn v. United States Thanks to the NAACP, the civil rights group established in 1909, Oklahomas grandfather clause faced a challenge in court. The organization urged a lawyer to fight the state’s grandfather clause, implemented in 1910. Oklahoma’s grandfather clause stated the following: â€Å"No person shall be registered as an elector of this state or be allowed to vote in any election held herein, unless he be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma; but no person who was, on January 1, 1866, or any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under any form of government, or who at that time resided in some foreign nation, and no lineal descendant of such person, shall be denied the right to register and vote because of his inability to so read and write sections of such Constitution.† The clause gave white voters an unfair advantage, since the grandfathers of black voters had been enslaved prior to 1866 and were, thus, barred from voting. Moreover, enslaved African Americans were typically forbidden to read, and illiteracy remained a problem (both in the white and black communities) well after slavery was abolished. The U.S. Supreme Court decided unanimously in the 1915 case Guinn v. United States that grandfather clauses in Oklahoma and Maryland violated the constitutional rights of African Americans. That’s because the 15th Amendment declared that U.S. citizens should have equal voting rights. The Supreme Court’s ruling meant that grandfather clauses in states such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia were also overturned. Despite the high court’s finding that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional, Oklahoma and other states continued to pass laws that made it impossible for African Americans to vote. The Oklahoma Legislature, for example, responded to the Supreme Court ruling by passing a new law that automatically registered the voters who’d been on the rolls when the grandfather clause was in effect. Anyone else, on the other hand, had only between April 30 and May 11, 1916, to sign up to vote or they would lose their voting rights forever. That Oklahoma law remained in effect until 1939 when the Supreme Court overturned it in Lane v. Wilson, finding that it infringed on the rights of voters outlined in the Constitution. Still, black voters throughout the South faced huge barriers when they tried to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Even if African Americans managed to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax, or complete other hurdles, they could be punished for voting in other ways. After slavery, large numbers of blacks in the South worked for white farm owners as tenant farmers or sharecroppers in exchange for a small cut of the profits from the crops grown. They also tended to live on the land they farmed, so voting as a sharecropper could mean not only losing one’s job but also being forced out of one’s home if the landowner opposed black suffrage. In addition to potentially losing their employment and housing if they voted, African Americans who engaged in this civic duty could find themselves targets of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. These groups terrorized black communities with night rides during which they would burn crosses on lawns, set homes alight, or force their way into black households to intimidate, brutalize, or lynch their targets. But courageous blacks exercised their right to vote, even if meant losing everything, including their lives. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated many of the barriers that black voters in the South encountered, such as poll taxes and literacy tests. The act also led to the federal government overseeing voter registration. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is credited with finally making the 15th Amendment a reality, but it still faces legal challenges like Shelby County v. Holder. Sources â€Å"Along the Color Line: Political,†Ã‚  The Crisis, volume 1, n. 1, November 11, 1910.Brenc, Willie. The Grandfather Clause (1898-1915). BlackPast.org. Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"The Racial History Of The ‘Grandfather Clause.’† NPR 22 October, 2013.Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Basic Books, 2009. United States; Killian, Johnny H.; Costello, George; Thomas, Kenneth R. The Constitution of the United States of America:  Analysis and Interpretation : Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 28, 2002. Government Printing Office, 2004.

Personality Theories Overview Essay - 1051 Words

Many psychologists throughout many years present theoretical approaches in an attempt to understand personality. Hans Eysenck’s approach of personality differed from that of Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalytical theory of personality. Eysenck’s theory of personality relies on the scientific basis of biology in explaining human personality. Although Freud’s theories are intriguing to an open mind, Eysenck’s approach made measurable scientific sense. He relied on the use of trait and factor analysis, which is a statistical method. Freud relied on faith and his personal opinions based on observational research to reach the assumptions that set forth his theories (Feist Feist, 2009). Eysenck and Freud did not agree on anything about†¦show more content†¦Freud examined many patients who suffered from illnesses such as depression, anxiety and hysteria. After many sessions of conversations with his patients, he understood how childhood experiences alwa ys played a major role in the person’s psychological state. Unlike Eysenck who relied on mathematics to explain his theories of the biological responsibility of personality, Freud explains levels of mental life. According to Freud, these levels and provinces consist of the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious mind. In addition to the levels of mental life exist provinces that consist of the id, go, and superego (Feist Feist, 2009). Eysenck and Freud’s theories both possess strengths that sway individuals of different backgrounds to agree or believe in the validity of either theory. In attempting to compare or contrast the two theories, it is important to examine who they were and how they were raised. It is also important to take notice of the suggestion to examine these facets. 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The Declaration of independence Free Essays

According to the criminal justice department, in 2011 around 321 people were sentenced to death penalty, this being only in the state of Texas. Which brings up the question: Is the declaration of independence being respected in the US? Well†¦ Not really! Have you ever seen MTV’s show 16 and pregnant? Well in some of the teen cases they have an abortion; and there are actually places where this is legal and it is â€Å"ok† to do it. That being said; in this document you will find some arguments of why the declaration of independence is not being respected. We will write a custom essay sample on The Declaration of independence or any similar topic only for you Order Now If you’ve ever read the declaration of independence, you probably noticed that in its second paragraph it clearly states that all men are created equal and that there are certain unalienable rights that governments should never violate. These rights include the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So lets talk a little about the first unalienable right, the right to life. No government should have the power to take a person’s life, as stated in the DOI the right to live is the first of the unalienable rights. So why is the government inducing lethal doses into thousands of people, or dropping bombs on Japan killing millions, or approving abortion. There is no possible way of making an end to a life â€Å"ok†. Death sentence should be abolished, since it is a clear violation to what The declaration of independence stands for†¦. As well as abortion and the use of chemical, or nuclear bombs. Taking a life is not only unacceptable it is a clear violation to what the declaration of independence stands for. Abortion, death sentence and bombs should definitely be abolished and not be taken in count in any situation. Well†¦ that being said the DOI is not being respected in the US and it is clearly being violated. It is a shame that the US actually has the death sentence and its definitely messed up that they don’t respect what the nation is basically based on! How to cite The Declaration of independence, Papers The Declaration of Independence Free Essays 2_01Revolutionary_Ideas Alex Wasko 4-20-13 Mr. Walsh The Declaration of Independence|Use this panel to provide a paragraph overview of the purpose and structure of the Declaration of Independence. The Declariation of Independence is a statement adopted by the Contenial Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britan, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. We will write a custom essay sample on The Declaration of Independence or any similar topic only for you Order Now Instead they now formed a new nation the United States of America. Popular sovereignty is the principle that the legitimacy of the government depends on the will or consent of its people. â€Å"When in the corse of human events it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature,s god entitle them ,a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel to the separation. The Declaration of Independence essentially stated that the social contract that the colony of America had with the government of Great Britain was no longer valid. And, this is in the very first sentence. The social contract that was reflected in the Declaration was as a sign of enforcing Democracy. |Natural rights are rights not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular cultur e or government, and therefore universal and inalienable rights. Individual rights are rights held by individual people; even if they are group-differentiated, what most rights are, they remain individual rights if the right-holders are the individuals themselves. |The only problem with the Declaration of Independence is the â€Å"all men are created equal† line. If they had meant â€Å"men† to be generic and apply to all people, it would be ok, but they clearly didn’t. They didn’t give women the right to vote or anything else. In fact, only male landowners were allowed to vote initially. | How to cite The Declaration of Independence, Papers