American controls on voting rights from 1870
Description
Having successfully segregated African Americans, Southern politicians also wanted to ensure they remained politically powerless. The poll tax, literacy tests and property tests were all introduced to prevent African Americans from voting, but they also prevented poor whites from voting. Eventually, the grandfather clause was introduced that more effectively prevented only African Americans from voting.
Classroom Ideas
Outline the separation of African Americans from electoral process. Explore in more detail issues surrounding suffrage in the USA, where the right to vote was decided by a combination of federal and state laws. Students could identify different individuals or groups and arrange them according to their opinion on whether African Americans should be able to vote. The progress to universal suffrage in the USA could be compared with political change in the UK.
Civil rights in the USA
Now playing video 3 of 12
- 6 of 12
- 8 of 12
- 12 of 12
