The Fight for the Right: The Voting Rights in the United States

Can you vote? Do you want to vote? Do you even have a vote?

 

Great questions!

 

You might have a quick answer that “of course” you can vote. Or you WILL vote after you turn 18. That’s excellent if you do!

 

Now what if someone told you that YOU couldn’t vote?

 

You might answer: No, that’s wrong. I meet the age requirement. I’m over 18.

 

But then you are asked:

 

Do you know the US Constitution?

 

Of course! I know about it, you say.

 

Then the registrar says: Great. Now recite the entire Constitution.

 

Do you mean that I should read it to you?

 

Can you read?

 

Yes, again, of course.

 

No, she says, just recite the entire Constitution from memory.

 

But I don’t KNOW it from memory!

 

So, the registrar says, “Then you can’t vote. Your application to register to vote is denied!”

 

Or the scenario could go this way:

 

You might be asked: Did you pay the $1,000 poll tax?

 

No, but I can pay it. I can write you a check right now.

 

Then the registrar says: No, you have paid it for 10 years. You owe $10,000 plus fines. Can you pay it now? Your answer: No. Then you cannot register to vote!

 

Or you might have been asked: Was your granddaddy registered to vote before the Civil War? Or explain what “Full faith and credit” means or what “ex post facto laws” are. Or I noticed that your name has a hyphen on the registry but not on your ID.

 

Denied. Denied. Denied.

 

I think that you get the picture: You are not going to be allowed to vote. Not today.

 

This was the situation faced by most African Americans in the after they received their freedom. They were regularly denied the right to vote.

 

And that is not the whole story. Many African Americans were threatened with losing their jobs, they were beaten, had their house burned down or even killed if they tried to register to vote. This was happening primarily—but not exclusively—in the southern states. And this was what African Americans, former enslaved persons, their children and grandchildren faced until the 1965.

 

So, when I asked: can you vote, do you want to vote and do you have a vote, I hope that you answered a resounding “yes!” to those questions. Because African Americans (and others) fought for the right to vote for a very long time. And the fight continues today—we’ll get to that a bit later.

 

First, I want to welcome you to Rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi, I’m Robin Lofton, the In-house Historian and host of this great and groundbreaking show that inspires YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history. I find history to be inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history fits the bill in all of these ways. Personally, I hate boring stuff. So boring stuff is not allowed at rememberinghistory.com or at this Wiki history podcast show. So, if you’re looking for boring, sorry you might have to turn to the other media. (I won’t mention any names.)

 

In the previous podcast show, I mentioned how my history of jazz course in college has inspired a lifelong love of jazz. Some of you sent me your stories about how a history class and even a history teacher inspired you to read more, learn African history, to teach and even to go to law school. History really does have it all—the mystery, the drama, the suspense, the personalities, the victories and yes even the crushing defeats. My favorite historian—yes, I have a favorite historian-- David McCullough, said, “For almost anyone with the normal human allotment of curiosity and an interest in people, history is a field day!” He continues on to say, “Why would anyone wish to be provincial in time any more than being tied down to one place through life, when the whole reach of the human drama is there to experience in some of the greatest books ever written?”   And this applies to all kinds of history—not just western civilization, American or European history. But also to African history (remembering the great Oyo and Ashanti Empires, the Kingdom of Kush, the amazing empires of Benin, Wolof and Kanem-Bornu—which flourished for a thousand years and there were so many others), and of course African American history (including but definitely not limited to slavery) and evolving as an integral part of American history. The saga continues. Like I said, you won’t ever find boring stuff here. Okay, let’s get back to the show!

 

Every month, the Wiki history podcast show focuses on a theme. The theme for January is: civil rights. And an essential part of civil rights is…voting rights. That’s what we’ll discuss in this show.

 

 

 

 

 

The previous show in January (for the new listeners) was a fun and innovative podcast called Lessons from a King. (Martin Luther King, that is.) His birthday is celebrated in January so the rememberinghistory.com team thought that this was a good opportunity to discuss Dr. King. We discussed 3 lessons—and they weren’t what you might have expected. I don’t want to spoil the surprise and ruin the fun so I’ll just encourage you to listen to the previous podcast: Lesson from a King. Get ready to be surprised. And inspired.

 

The next and last show in January on civil rights won’t focus on the law or rights but instead on the modern civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. The show will focus on a group that is often neglected though they had a huge impact: college students. College students were often on the front lines of civil rights activities. These student-activists were marching, engaging in sit-ins, writing articles and making speeches, registering people to vote and so many other activities. They were often threatened, beaten and sometimes worse. But their impact is undeniable. Stay tuned for this important show. Students can make a difference. So that’s where we’re going in the next podcast show.

 

We will get started with today’s show in just a moment. Just a bit of information first.

 

During this podcast, you will hear about people, places, events and issues. You will HEAR about them, but I completely understand if you want to actually SEE them, too. We got that covered on the Wiki History Podcast Page on Facebook. You will find pictures, animated videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way that we think of history—one friend at a time.

 

I have one more item of interest, it’s about our podcast dedication for 2017—but I’ll save it for AFTER the show.

 

That’s enough for now. Let’s get started with this great and groundbreaking Wiki history podcast show called “The Fight for the Right: Voting Rights in America.”

 

 

 

 

Let’s think back to the opening of this podcast to the scenario where you were submitting your application to register to vote and the voting registrar asked crazy questions, made crazy demands and basically set up insurmountable barriers to voting (like requiring you to recite the entire 4500-word Constitution). In the end, you were not allowed to vote. And this was the situation faced by many African Americans for almost a hundred years—until 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Yes, that’s right, this discriminatory voting system started around 1870 (shortly after the end of slavery) and continued until 1965. In some ways, it continues today but we’ll get to that a bit later.

 

You might say but wait, what about the 15th Amendment to the Constitution?!

 

Great question and it’s a great place to start with our discussion about voting rights in the United States.

 

The 15th Amendment (passed in 1869) was short. It said,

 

“The right of citizens 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.”

 

That should resolve the question right there. Race, color or previous condition of servitude (namely enslavement) should not prevent a person from voting.

 

The immediate effect of the 15th Amendment was that more African Americans started voting and more African Americans were elected to public office. This didn’t last long, however.

 

This short and vague amendment merely forbade the denial of the vote based on race, color and previous enslavement (weird thing to say). But it (very conspicuously) ignored more detailed issues such as the use of indirect methods to block the vote—like the poll tax and literacy test in the opening scenario of this podcast. Did you notice that they never asked or commented on your race in the opening scenario? And these “INDIRECT methods of disenfranchisement” were directly responsible for keeping African Americans out of the voting booths for nearly 100 years.

 

During that period, there was systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans led by conservative southern Democrats (yes, Democrats).

 

They used:

Literacy tests—first used in South Carolina. (Most former slaves couldn’t read.)

Understanding tests—the potential voter had to demonstrate an understanding of certain clauses in the Constitution.

Poll taxes—large sums were required to register to vote, sometimes cumulative back taxes were required. This eliminated most African Americans and poor whites from registering.

Grandfather clauses—your grandfather must have been eligible to vote before the Civil War. Of course, most enslaved persons and their children would not qualify to vote under the grandfather clauses. Fortunately, the Supreme Court invalidated these grandfather clauses in a case against Oklahoma in 1915.

Residency requirements—you had to have resided in a specific area to vote.

Long-term residency requirements

Constant re-residency requirements—changing the reqs without notice

 

Election fraud was rampant. There was ballot box stuffing, throwing out votes by African Americans, and the refusal to count votes for Black candidates (this was discovered in Kentucky) but happened throughout the southern United States in the early 1900s.

And violence was actually the principal means used to disenfranchise African Americans and to keep them from voting or running for elected office. The Ku Klux Klan (founded in Kentucky in 1866) was formed with the purpose of terrorizing African Americans who acquired economic and/or political power, particularly focusing on Blacks who tried to vote. But “citizens councils” and other groups used violence to disenfranchise African Americans.

 

 

 

 

This period of black disenfranchisement (1870 to 1965) demonstrates that it was not caused solely by the actions of Southern states and individual people using violence and terror. It was also a failure of the PRESIDENT to uphold and exercise federal power to ensure that Blacks could participate in the electoral system. CONGRESS also failed to use its powers under the 14th and 15th amendments. And the SUPREME COURT actively undermined federal executive powers to protect black voting rights, refused to acknowledge racial discrimination even when it was obvious, and it accepted blatant constitutional violations. Lots of cases about that but too many to mention now. We’ll examine one case soon though.

 

Let’s move from THAT bleak picture to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 

The Voting Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination in voting. Notice the difference from the 15th Amendment? No focus on merely race or color or previous enslavement. The focus of the Voting Rights Act is on prohibiting ANY kind of action that in purpose or effect discriminates against racial minorities. That’s big. Much bigger than the deliberately watered-down language of the 15th Amendment.

 

The DOJ said it best: the Voting Rights Act is the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.

 

It was signed by President Lyndon Johnson and has been amended at least 5 times to expand its scope.

 

The immediate and lasting effect of the Voting Rights Act was to SUSPEND literacy tests, poll taxes, understanding tests, grandfather clauses and all the other obstacles placed before African Americans applying to vote. But it did even more than that. It assigned federal examiners to oversee elections and assigned observers to help people register to vote. And most importantly it required states that had a history of racial discrimination in voting to apply to the U.S. Attorney General WHENEVER the state or local government wanted to create new laws, rules or codes that might result in racial discrimination in voting. Again, that’s another “wow!”

 

The Voting Rights Act contains numerous provisions that regulate election administration. The Act's "general provisions" provide nationwide protections for voting rights.

 

The Act also contains "special provisions" that apply ONLY TO CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS. A core special provision is the Section 5 preclearance requirement, which prohibits certain jurisdictions from implementing any change affecting voting without receiving preapproval from the U.S. Attorney General that the change doesn’t discriminate against protected minorities.

 

Remember this special preclearance requirement (where they had to get approval from the Attorney General) only applies to certain jurisdictions. I’m sure that you can guess which, but I’ll tell you anyway.

 

Alabama

Georgia

Louisiana

Mississippi

South Carolina

Virginia

 

Alaska, Arizona and Texas were added in 1975.

 

And a few counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina (actually 40 counties in NC) and South Dakota.

 

Just look at the immediate effect. In 1964, a year before the Voting Rights Act was passed, 29 percent of African Americans were registered to vote. (That’s a nationwide percentage—the figures in the southern states were definitely lower.) But just 2 years AFTER the Voting Rights Act was passed, 52 percent of African Americans were registered to vote. From 29 percent to 52 percent in just 3 years. The Voting Rights Act was POWERFUL. No wonder that it was a prime objective of Dr. Martin Luther King to pass this law!

 

 

If you’re still not impressed, let me give you some real numbers. Going beyond registered voters. Here’s one figure. In 1964 (the year before the Voting Rights Act), 6 percent of African Americans were registered to vote in Mississippi. By 1969, 59 percent of African Americans were registered! That’s impressive!

 

But I’m sorry to say that problems continue for African Americans and other racial, ethnic and language minorities in the American voting system.

 

In one of its worst blows to civil rights, the Supreme Court invalidated important sections of the Voting Rights Act. The case was called County of Shelby v. Holder, decided in 2013. In a 5-4 decision, the Court admitted that voting discrimination continues to exist but said the Voting Rights Act exceeded Congress’s power to enforce the 15th Amendment and was punishing states for past behavior that might not be relevant today.

 

The Shelby County v. Holder case was an unfortunate step backwards in the long struggle to end discrimination in voting. The reality is that discrimination in voting REMAINS a real and immediate problem. Violations still occur. And any violation (even if it seems small) often impacts thousands, tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of voters. (Recent presidential elections have been decided by these kinds of numbers!)

 

I have official reports that list serious violations in practically every state in the country. The violations are numerous. The reports are detailed. And they show unequivocally that discrimination in voting remains a serious problem. I won’t list all the violations here—there are just too many of them—but they are important so maybe I’ll make a different podcast discussing them. But the most common violations can be grouped under the category of vote dilution. Attempts to dilute the voting power of individuals or groups of minorities.

 

 

 

 

 

Vote dilution is the practice of reducing he potential effectiveness of a group’s voting strength by limiting the group’s chances to translate voting strength into voting power. In the United States, this occurs when a traditional white majority precludes a minority group’s choices from having any bearing or significant meaning in an election on par with the white voters in the same election. (I know that’s vague so I’ll try to get more specific.)

 

The usual device for diluting the minority vote is manipulation of district lines either by fragmenting the minority voters into several districts where a bloc-voting majority can routinely outvote them or “packing” minority voters into a small number of districts to minimize their influence in adjacent districts. This kind of re-districting is common, effective and insidious in disenfranchising African Americans and other minority groups. And it is happening right now.

 

I do want to mention other modern ways of disenfranchising voters.

 

1. Requiring state ID for voters. This was done in Georgia, Kansas and Alabama.
2. Excessively long waiting lines in some areas (for example, Maricopa County in Arizona had ONLY one polling station for every 21,000 residents while the rest of the state had one for every 11,000 residents.) People waited for hours to vote and sometimes the voting station closed before everyone in line could vote.
3. Closing polling stations in exchange for mail-only polling station. This was done in San Juan County, Utah. This opens the door to voter fraud and rejecting ballots from voters in certain areas (identified by the zip code).
4. Rejecting people whose names don’t match EXACTLY the driver’s license or social security cards. People were rejected for a missing accent or hyphen on the card. This particularly affected women, Latinos and African Americans.
5. Prohibiting people with a felony conviction from voting. That means more nearly 6 million Americans, including 1 in 13 African Americans are forever barred from voting.

 

These are pretty sneaky but effective ways of prohibiting large groups of people from voting. And it definitely has an effect in elections.

 

But don’t despair. All is not lost. The Voting Rights Act is not dead. In 2014, Congress introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act (with bipartisan support!) directly in response to the Supreme Court case. The VRAA includes NEW methods of federal action, NEW tools to identify and stop voting discrimination BEFORE it occurs and it works to ensure that election changes are transparent. So, the fight against voting discrimination continues in the Congress.

 

That brings me to the final section that examines what YOU can do to fight voting discrimination. Everyone has a role to play and, as you can see from the history, people from all backgrounds, races, genders and ethnicities have been working hard to ensure the right to vote and that the vote has an impact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what can YOU do?

 

1. Be sure to register to vote. Check your registration status periodically to ensure that you have not been removed from the voter registry. (This happens A LOT!) But don’t just focus on federal elections. Vote in state, county and local elections. Most voter discrimination happens at the local level.
2. Keep abreast of changes to the voting rules in your district. Again, remember to watch the local elections too—where most voter discrimination occurs. Watch everything from federal elections down to the local school board election. It all matters!
3. Speak out and challenge any rules that negatively affect your ability to vote. Get to know your local representative and contact them whenever changes are made.
4. Encourage others to speak out against discriminatory voting laws and rules.
5. Help others register to vote and assist people in getting to the polls.
6. At the voting polls, be observant. Report harassment, excessively long lines, intimidation of ANY kind or hints of voter suppression. Definitely report it.
7. Volunteer at voter registration events. The NAACP and other organizations regularly host these events.
8. Sign up for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights at www.civilrights.org. They will send notifications whenever changes are proposed to the voting laws in your district. Then, take action!

 

So, you see? There is a lot that you (and I) can do to fight discrimination in voting. And we HAVE to do it if we want to ensure voter access and equality. We’ve come too far to drop the ballot now! Voter discrimination remains, “an insidious and pervasive evil” (that’s a direct quote from the Voting Rights Act).

 

That wraps up this Wiki history podcast called “The Fight for the Right: Voting Rights in America.” I hope that you enjoyed it, learned a little something and felt inspired and moved to do what you can to protect the right to vote. More people need to know about this continuing struggle. And it definitely IS continuing.

 

I realize that I mentioned names of laws and other information that you might want more information about. The rememberinghistory.com team has you covered. You can get more information, read the “What You Can Do” list, see great pictures and even find good a book list at the Wiki History podcast page on Facebook. You will also find a link to a short animated video about voting rights. It’s only 2 minutes and I think that you’ll find interesting and fun. And it’s great for kids of all ages.

 

Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

 

 

The next show is about the role and impact of students in the civil rights movement. These student-activists were bold, brave and didn’t back down. You definitely don’t wanna miss that show! After that we’re heading into Black History Month, which is always an exciting month at rememberinghistory.com. And we have a special announcement and offer to make to all Wiki History podcast listeners.

 

Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day!

 

Bye for now!