Disenfranchisement

Examples of Disenfranchisement in the following topics:

• Disenfranchising African Americans

  • During Reconstruction, many Southern states passed laws that disenfranchised African Americans.
  • The disenfranchisement of African Americans after the Reconstruction era was based on a series of laws, new constitutions, and practices that deliberately were used to prevent black citizens from registering to vote and voting.
  • They succeeded in disenfranchising most of the black citizens, as well as many poor whites in the South, and voter rolls dropped dramatically in each state.
  • The literacy test was subjectively applied by white administrators, and the two provisions effectively disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites.
  • Assess the impact of the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South during the last part of the nineteenth century

• Progressivism for Whites Only

  • All the Southern states (and Oklahoma) used devices to disenfranchise black voters during the Progressive Era.
  • Typically the progressive elements in the states pushed for disenfranchisement, often fighting against the conservatism of the Black Belt whites.
  • A major reason given was that whites routinely purchased black votes to control elections, and it was easier to disenfranchise blacks than to go after powerful white men.
  • While their voter registration requirements applied to all citizens, in practice they disenfranchised most blacks.
  • He benefited by the disenfranchisement of blacks and crippling of the Republican Party in the South.

• Women and the Law

  • While women gained some legal rights in the nineteenth century, African-American women, in particular, remained largely disenfranchised.
  • African-American women were even more disenfranchised under the law, facing the intersecting oppressions of gender and race.

• Enfranchisement and Its Limits

  • At the same time, however, New York effectively disenfranchised free black men in 1822 (black men had had the right to vote under the 1777 constitution) by requiring that “men of color” possess property valuing more than $250—an exorbitant amount at the time.
  • The Supreme Court of North Carolina originally upheld the ability of free African Americans to vote before they were disenfranchised by the decision of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1835.

• From Property to Democracy

  • The Supreme Court of North Carolina upheld the ability of free African-Americans to vote before they were disenfranchised by the decision of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1835.

• African American Migration

  • Many in Louisiana were inspired to leave the state when the 1879 Louisiana Constitutional Convention decided that voting rights were a matter for the state (not federal) government, thereby clearing the way for the disenfranchisement of Louisiana's black population.

• The Spread of Segregation

  • Many southern states passed requirements for voting after the Civil War that effectively disenfranchised African-Americans.

• Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

  • These laws disenfranchised individuals who could not take the Ironclad Oath.
  • Because they were unable to take this oath, these individuals were disenfranchised.

• The Transformed South

  • Fleming accepted as necessary the disenfranchisement of African Americans because he thought their votes were bought and sold by carpetbaggers.

• The "New Negro"

  • For African-Americans, World War I highlighted the widening gap between U.S. rhetoric regarding "the war to make the world safe for democracy," and the reality of disenfranchised and exploited black farmers in the South or the poor and alienated residents of the northern slums.