Discrimination In Voting Practices

Improved Essays
Citizenship in the United States means having the right to vote. However, this right for every citizen did not come without overcoming some racially discriminatory obstacles. One of these obstacles for African-American men were the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws unfairly discriminated against African-Americans preventing them from casting their ballot at the voting poll. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended the overt forms of racial discrimination in voting practices. However, as time has passed and with the June 2013 Supreme Court decision declaring Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (1965) unconstitutional, many more ambiguous ways to discriminate for elections (especially local) have come about. One form of racial discrimination at the local …show more content…
A key solution to this problem starts with educating minority communities on their basic right as a citizen to not only vote, but to choose the candidate of their choice. With increased education, organizations such as the Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union can intervene of these citizens behalf to pursue legal action to rectify these violations of the Voting Rights Act. This practice could also increase minority participation in the political process if they believe that their votes mean something. Especially in local government, it is important to have officials that are not only dedicated to the community, but also officials who understand it. At-large voting practices prevent this from happening by increasing votes for candidates that community members may not want in office. This practice also discourages members of that community to participate because the candidate that they want never gets

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Voting Rights Dbq

    • 1559 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Some groups of people challenged the Voting Rights Act because they didn’t have the awareness about the importance and demand of the act. Although the Voting Rights Act provided African Americans the right to vote, they still didn’t gain the equal conditions. The American government has to make a commitment that they will put their effort to insure all people 's’ rights. If people’s rights are not fully protected or took away, the American government have the responsibility to support those people and serve them to get…

    • 1559 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Voting Rights Act 1970

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Voting Rights Act promptly began after the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The act was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower and it became the platform for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 1960 Civil Rights Act was enabled in order to protect the right to vote for African-Americans It established penalties against anyone who threatened or attempted to deny any African-American to vote. It wasn’t such a success in itself, but it did build a bridge to possibility. Such possibility was furthered by enacting the Voting Rights Act of 1965.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    14th Amendment Dbq

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In July of 1868, the 14th Amendment was passed, this amendment gave citizenship for all persons born in the United States. This amendment empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans; there was subsequently legal equality. Although this amendment did not give African Americans the right to vote, it did articulate if a state denied the vote from any group of men, their representation in congress would be reduced. Of course, there are other assets the amendment proposed as well. Throughout history, this amendment has played a huge role in the advancement of American society.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With much of the power to enforce these voting rights still in the hands of the state government states like North Carolina created “a clever form of disenfranchisement” when it adopted the “Eight Box Law” which divided election ballots into separate voting boxes, for local, state and national elections. These boxes served as a “confusing literacy test” and if the ballots were not in the proper box the vote was not counted. ( Organization of American Historians 2007) Some ex-Confederate states continued to force disenfranchisement through “secret ballots” and” poll taxes.” Along with literacy testing that not only prohibited blacks from voting but also “poor illiterate whites” ( Organization of American Historians…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights bill which sought to make racial disfranchisement illegal. This act stands as one of the most powerful pieces of civil rights legislation within American history. However, before the Voting Rights bill majority of African Americans were denied the right to vote; creating a wide gap between white and black voters. This gap was predominantly seen in southern states due to the large African-American population. Today, voting amongst Americans depicts a very different image.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “New literacy tests and residency and registration requirements, common in northern as well as southern states, limited the right to vote among the poor.” Being that almost all of color America was lower class, these electoral changes during the Progressive Era symbolized a considerable reversal of the idea that voting was a given right of American citizenship (Foner,…

    • 1256 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Voting Dbq

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Before the passing of the Voting Rights Act by the United States Congress in 1965, there used to be racial discrimination in the voting system. Poor African Americans, Hispanic people and even white women were not allowed to cast their vote during election. According to textbook, these people were prohibited from voting by implementing different techniques for the voting such as poll tax, white primary. The poor African American People as well as white women, and Hispanic people were unable to afford the poll tax that was mandatory for the participation in the voting process (p274-275). At that time, even it was required to be a member of Democratic Party to be nominated as a candidate for office.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    1865 was the start of a brand new period in American history; Reconstruction. After the Civil War, the United States was left in ruins so the North helped the South rebuild and make it easier for them to rejoin the Union. Northerners and Republicans tried to help, but their efforts weren 't very successful. Reconstruction was a failure. During Reconstruction, African Americans gained many rights , but these rights didn 't last very long.…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The freedom to vote without fear exponentially increased the number of people who could speak on the behalf of a minority group in America. Furthermore, the year 1965 proved to be a year that would continue to strike against the notions of a ‘white-centered America’ when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Voting rights and minorities have had issues before. Up until 1965 African americans didn't have the right to vote. in 1886 they were granted citizenship but not the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th amendment was ratified and prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude”. In 1965 the voting rights act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Voting Process

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Constitution is particularly vague on the issue of voting. Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution left the establishment of voting practice procedures and who is eligible to vote up to the individual states. A provision was made for Congress to alter the voting process if necessary (Justia, 2015). As an unintended result, suffrage was initially limited to white, male property holders. The Fifteenth Amendment addresses the rights of citizens to vote in two sections.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The formula on section four of the Voting Rights Act surely placed an unfair restrictions on most of the southern states. The restrictions were first, the five year suspension of a test for literacy second, any changes that affected voting had to go under a review either by the district court of D.C or by the Attorney General third, the Attorney General would appoint federal examiners to certify identified jurisdictions, and lastly the authority of the Attorney General allows him or her to direct federal observers to the affected jurisdictions that were certified. In this essay I will go more into detail about all of these restrictions. The suspension of five years of a device such as a literacy test was used as a prerequisite in order for…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In order to stop black men from voting they created literacy test or other exams that you had to past in order to vote. For example, they would ask “what country are we in”. They was also ask them if they could read. They made it difficult for us so that we wouldn’t be a factor when it comes to voting.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In a Democracy it is important to have frequent elections where all adults have the availability to participate. Until recent history the United States had mechanism put in place where some groups of society had multiple obstacles. Mechanisms like poll tax and literacy tests were given to reduce the number of minority voters. Individuals were even disfranchised and had no capability to vote. Devices and mechanisms able to break the burden of disfranchisement had first began in 1965 when a group of peaceful marchers traveled to Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery to push and promote legislation for the creation of new voting rights legislation.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The right to vote is a central part of any democracy, but most democratic countries have significant limits on who can and cannot vote. According to Professor Christopher Uggen, there are 5.6 million Americans of voting age who are disenfranchised by state laws that “restrict voting rights for those convicted of serious crimes.” In eleven US states even “ex-felons” who have served their sentence and parole are still prohibited from voting. In 1976, 1.2 million people living in America lost their right to vote due to felony convictions as of April 2014 the number has gone up to 6 million.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays