What was the poll tax grandfather clause?
The laws often included a grandfather clause, which allowed any adult male whose father or grandfather had voted in a specific year prior to the abolition of slavery to vote without paying the tax.
What was the point of grandfather clauses in Southern literacy tests?
The Grandfather Clause was a legal or constitutional mechanism passed by seven Southern states during Reconstruction to deny suffrage to Blacks. It meant that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting.
Which Amendment made it illegal to use poll taxes or literacy tests as a condition to be eligible to vote in all US elections?
Not long ago, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials.
What is a grandfather clause and what was its purpose with respect to literacy tests?
What is a grandfather clause, and what was its purpose with respect to literacy tests? A grandfather clause stated that any man, or his male descendants, who had voted in the state before the 15th amendment(1870) could legally vote without regard to literacy or tax paying requirements.
What were poll taxes and grandfather clauses used for?
Poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud and intimidation all turned African Americans away from the polls. Until the Supreme Court struck it down in 1915, many states used the “grandfather clause ” to keep descendents of slaves out of elections.
What was the purpose of poll taxes and grandfather clauses quizlet?
Most African American’s were too poor to pay the poll tax and not educated enough to pay the poll tax. The grandfather clause allowed white people to vote even after these laws were made as long as their ancestors had voted.
What does the 26th Amendment say?
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
What was the purpose of the grandfather clauses?
Updated December 22, 2018 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.
How did the NAACP Fight the grandfather clause?
Thanks to the NAACP, the civil rights group established in 1909, Oklahoma’s grandfather clause faced a challenge in court. The organization urged a lawyer to fight the state’s grandfather clause, implemented in 1910.
Why did people have to take literacy tests?
Poll taxes and literacy tests were tools white supremacists formerly used to stop black Americans from voting. Paying a poll tax to vote was too expensive for many black citizens. Literacy tests were written to be confusing. Grandfather clauses gave white citizens a way to avoid losing the vote.
How did the literacy test conflict with the Twenty-Fourth Amendment?
The Court unanimously held the law to conflict with the Twenty-fourth Amendment as it penalized those who chose to exercise a right guaranteed them by the amendment. There were many uneducated African Americans in the post-Civil War era. Literacy tests were used to help exclude them from the polls.