Who Voted: The Gradual Expansion of Suffrage

1789: Constitutional Era

Voting Rights in America

• All landowning, white, males were allowed to vote.

• 6% of the population was allowed to vote.

• Founding Fathers Neglected to Incorporate Voting Rights into the Consitution.

“Those who own the country ought to govern it.”

Andrew Jackson (1820’s)

National Movement• Political parties began to get

voters to vote.• Qualification of land began to

be removed in many states.• All White Males Can Vote• Thomas Jefferson

– Supported the idea of elites running the country.

• Andrew Jackson– Wanted everyone to

participate in government. Fought to open schools and colleges to all citizens. “ Common Man”

15th Amendment (1870)• Article XV.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States 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—Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The First Colored Senator and Representatives, in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States.Washington: Currier & Ives, 1872.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5b.html

15th Amendment to the U.S. ConstitutionAfrican American’s Right to Vote

TOP: The photo of the doucment: http://www.historicaldocuments.com/15thAmendmentlg.htmLEFT: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_reconstruct.html

Intimidation and death • After Reconstruction

white supremacist did everything possible to prevent Blacks from voting.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/tools_voting.html

Copyright 1997 State Historical Society of Wisconsin

White Supremacy

http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/photos/html/1010.html

Jim Crow, Intimidation and Fear

Segregationhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/php/scribble.php?pic=3

17th Amendment (1913)

Provided for the Direct Election

of Senators by the Citizens.

Previous:- Senators were selected by members of the

State legislatures.

19th Amendment (1920)Women’s Suffrage

• Women gained the right to vote in the 1920’s.

• 1917 NWP was formed to help pass the 19th Amendment. (National Women’s Party)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSmbNN0C8K8&feature=related

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

“Allowed” Native Americans to Become Citizens of the United States

Voter Discrimination During Reconstruction

Poll Taxes

Literacy Test

Poll Taxes

• Poll Taxes– Were a tax which

people had to pay in order to vote.

• Purpose– To discriminate

against African American voters and make it hard for them to vote in elections.

Literacy Tests

• Whites were exempt from literacy tests or given easier alternate tests.

• African Americans had to pass tests showing they could read.

Removal of Poll Taxes and Literacy Tests

• 24th Amendment– Banned Poll Taxes

• Voting Rights Act of 1965– Banned Literacy Tests

Introduction to Primaries

• What is a primary?– An election in which voters determine their

political party’s nominee for an elective office.