My teacher said that many blacks were uneducated back in the 1960's and that what prevented them for voting.

Question

Is that true? I mean we were talking about the Civil Rights Movement and whatnot..and then somebody in my class asked a question about "wasn't women allowed to vote?" Then my teacher said "Yes that true..but only white women/not colored." So anyway, my teacher was talking about how the government would establish these test just so black people can take test like vocab test..etc...and she said that prevented them from voting because they was very uneducated. Is this true?

Answer 1

I'm afraid not. In the first place, African Americans COULD vote. They had the vote since the mid-1800s, when the 15th amendment was passed. During the Reconstruction period, many blacks DID vote, and several black men were even elected to state and federal government positions. Blacks were PREVENTED from voting by racism, especially in the South. White supremacy groups like the KKK frightened African Americans out of voting, while many states passed what were known as "Jim Crow laws," attempting to subtly deny blacks the right to vote without going against the 15th amendment outright. Examples included poll taxes and the Grandfather Clause, which stated that a man was only allowed to vote if his GRANDFATHER had voted. Since the grandparent's of most southern blacks had been enslaved, this kept many of them from voting. These laws were not struck down until the mid-20th century. What you seem to be describing is another example of a Jim Crow law. In the 19th century, many blacks in the South were uneducated, it's true, since at that time, education was only available to people with money. But certainly not by the 1960s. African Americans, by law, received the same amount of education as whites. Of course, in all places, education wasn't PERFECTLY equal, but blacks were required to go to school just like whites were. They were no more uneducated than whites.

Answer 2

The literacy test, combined with other discriminatory requirements, effectively disfranchised the vast majority of African Americans in the South from the 1890s until the 1960s. Southern states abandoned the literacy test only when forced to by federal legislation in the 1960s. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act provided that literacy tests used as a qualification for voting in federal elections be administered wholly in writing and only to persons who had not completed six years of formal education. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended the use of literacy tests in all states or political subdivisions in which less than 50 percent of the voting age residents were registered as of 1 November 1964, or had voted in the 1964 presidential election

Answer 3

After the Civil War, blacks became free.
In the South, many whites had a hard time with this.
After the war (1865) until 1877, former slaves were granted:
Civil Rights--14th amendment and the right to vote--15 amendment, and they had federal protection and actually voted in large numbers. After a corrupt election in 1876, federal protection was removed and blacks in the South had no protection in voting. Southern states passed state laws to prevent blacks from voting.
-poll tax (pay to vote and very few had money)
-grandfather clause (blacks could vote if their
grandfathers voted)
-literacy tests(like a vocab test, they had to read and
respond to difficult questions correctly)
These state laws prevented a lot of blacks (men and women) from voting between 1878-1950s.

Answer 4

Dear Smash: State and local governments in the South did indeed in those days establish vocabulary tests to qualify black persons to vote. White persons did not have to take the tests, or if they did, they passed. A white official would then tell the black voter that s(he) had "failed." So it was not that blacks were uneducated.

Answer 5

In a nutshell yes that is true...white people also tried to keep black people from voting as much as possible. It was a give and take. White people would say ok black people can vote if ____....but they knew that the "if" couldn't be done by the black person at all or as easily.

Answer 6

black men got the right to vote BEFORE black and white women, who got the right to vote at the same time. black men were voting in the 1800's while women of any color couldn't vote until the 1900's.

in the 1960's state governments tried to take the right to vote AWAY from black men and women, but ultimately were unsuccessful.

Answer 7

confident, this is genuine, exceptionally interior the south. The states have been allowed to envision their own standards for somebody to vote, and rather some the time, the exams have been administered verbally. the guy administering the try ought to then arbitrarily choose for somebody wasn't clever adequate to vote and deliver them packing.

Answer 8

Go to wikipedia and type in civil rights movement - tells you all you need to know about it.

Answer 9

thats interesting but it wasnt our fault cuz we couldnt get eduacated or it wasnt easy to be educated back then because so much racism and hate around keeping us from getting our education but thats very interesting and probaly true cuz thats probaly the only sensible reason besids racism

Answer 10

try looking up "Jim Crow Laws".