The Struggle for the Right to Vote
Early voting begins on Saturday, October 25th and goes until Sunday, November 2nd, with several key races open. If you miss early voting you can vote on Tuesday, November 4th. Check your election headquarters for locations for early voting. There are three candidates for Mayor of Buffalo. There are three major candidates for the Erie County Legislature. You can also vote for candidates running for the Buffalo Board of Education. As we face voting on the local level this year and beyond, it is important to remember that the history of voting rights must be remembered for African Americans.
The history of that struggle must be passed on to our youth so that they will not forget the sacrifice so many of our people made to try to vote. For more information on the names of candidates you can contact the Erie County Board of Elections at (716) 858-8891. The office is located at 134 West Eagle Street. It is open from 9 – 5 p.m. This article will present some of those struggles where the laws in this country made it impossible for Black people to exercise their right to vote while experiencing threats of violence and intimidation from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
This article will give a general overview of some of the struggles that African Americans have faced, which made it impossible for them to exercise their right to vote, while experiencing threats of violence and laws that impeded their right to vote. We are experiencing this today as the Supreme Court is seeking to curb the right to vote. The record is clear that this has been a long struggle. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act on April 9, 1866. This Civil Rights Act of 1866 was supposed to give African Americans the same rights as whites, except the right to vote. It was also aimed at the Black codes of the south. The state of Mississippi had some of the worst Black codes.
Under these codes, Blacks had to have written proof of a job every year. Blacks could not rent or own land. They were punished for insulting whites or preaching without a license. In South Carolina, Blacks could not do any other work except farming. If Blacks worked at anything other than a servant or a farmer, they were fined up to $100 a year. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 made these codes illegal. It also gave Blacks the right to sue and to give evidence in court of owning property, but not the right to vote.
In response to the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, the next move was to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1871. The goal was to stop the violence if it interfered with a person’s constitutional rights. This law was also supposed to outlaw the wearing of disguises by anyone seeking to deprive others of their rights. These laws passed by Congress were largely ignored or overturned when it came to the protection of Blacks in this country. The Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1871. The view of the court was that regulating individual behavior was a state matter and if the state did not feel that Blacks had any rights to protect, then it was not the business of the federal government.
In the case of the United States versus Reese in 1876, the Supreme Court struck down the federal provisions guaranteeing voting rights. The court at the time did nothing to stop the intimidation and threats of murders against Blacks who tried to vote. This process of disfranchisement continued for many years throughout the south. The southern racists devised scheme after scheme to keep Blacks from voting. Many of the amendments to the Constitution were also attacked. In the Slaughterhouse Case of 1873, the Supreme Court recognized two classes of citizenship, state and federal. The decision in this case denied protection under the fourteenth amendment for Blacks.
When the state and local authorities refused to protect Black voters in fed eral election from beatings and mur der, the Supreme Court denied those victims the right to claim that their voting rights had been violated. Law after law was designed to keep Blacks in their place and not give them the same rights as whites. A thorough analysis of the Supreme Court will show that Blacks had to struggle for the right to vote in hundreds of cases. This is the history that African Ameri cans must not forget! Pass this infor mation on to your family and friends. Vote at every opportunity and remem ber the history!!