Payment of a poll tax was a prerequisite to the registration for voting in a number of states until 1965. 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 purpose did the grandfather clause serve?
Until the Supreme Court struck it down in 1915, many states used the “grandfather clause ” to keep descendents of slaves out of elections. The clause said you could not vote unless your grandfather had voted — an impossibility for most people whose ancestors were slaves.
What is a grandfather clause and what was its purpose?
A grandfather clause (or grandfather policy or grandfathering) is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from the new rule are said to have grandfather rights or acquired rights, or to have been grandfathered in.
When was poll tax abolished?
On this date in 1962, the House passed the 24th Amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86.
What did the grandfather clauses and the white primary do?
These tactics caused registration by blacks to drop significantly. Such measures as the poll tax, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and the white primary proved especially effective in disfranchising blacks.
Why was there a grandfather clause for literacy tests?
However, whites found that literacy tests also would exclude large numbers of whites from becoming eligible voters since many whites could not read or write either. As a remedy, some jurisdictions adopted a “reasonable interpretation” clause; these laws gave voting registrars discretion to evaluate applicants’ performance on literacy tests.
When did the grandfather clauses start and end?
Grandfather clauses, a peculiarly irksome impediment to achieving voting rights for African Americans, were enacted by seven Southern states between 1895 and 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.
