II. Expanding the Right to Vote

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II. Expanding the Right to Vote
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Literacy Test Alabama (1962)

• Explain the meaning of the following sentence
• Todays itinerary is not only nugatory and
  pejorative, it was also written by an individual
  who was merely being facetious
• Todays plan is not logical and negative, and was
  written by someone who was joking around

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A. Basic Right

• Suffrage The right to vote
• Fundamental right to democracy in theory
• No mention of voting rights in the Constitution

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B. Early Limitations

• Women and African Americans were not allowed to
  vote
• White males could not vote unless they owned a
  certain amount of property and paid taxes
• 5-6 - Of adult males actually voted

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C. African American Suffrage

• Fifteenth Amendment (1870) Grants blacks the
  right to vote - Universal Male Suffrage
• After Reconstruction every state rewrote their
  Constitution to limited the power of blacks

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D. Suppressing the Black Vote

• 1) Poll Tax Special tax paid before a person
  could vote
• 2) Literacy Test Complex reading and
  comprehension test
• 3) Grandfather Clause Stated that if your
  grandfather voted before 1867, you could vote
  without a poll tax or literacy test

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E. Elimination of Limits

• 1915 Supreme Court ruled that the grandfather
  clause was unconstitutional
• Twenty-Fourth Amendment Poll taxes were no
  longer allowed in federal elections
• 1966 Supreme Court ruled poll taxes illegal in
  all elections
• 1970 Literacy test were outlawed

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F. Womens Suffrage

• 1869 Wyoming became the first state to allow
  women to vote
• Nineteenth Amendment (1920) Women are given the
  right to vote nationally
• Results from hard-fought women suffragist such as
  Susan B. Anthony and Elisabeth Cady Stanton

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Susan B. Anthony and Elisabeth Cady Stanton
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G. Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971)

• Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18
• Product of the Vietnam War
• Average age of soldiers was 19.2
• Basic argument was that people were old enough to
  be drafted and die but not allowed to vote

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Youve Got to Fight for Your Right to Vote
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Rock the Vote
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