bell ringer what role does voting play in defining the rights of individuals and groups?
TRANSCRIPT
Bell Ringer
What role does voting play in defining the rights of individuals and groups?
Voting Rights
Fighting for the Keys to Political Power
The Problem African-Americans
largely blocked from voting Rigged Literacy tests Poll taxes Intimidation
In Mississippi, African-Americans were 40% of the population and only 5% of the registered voters Madison County:
29,000 African Americans- 200 registered
The Drive to Register Voters
Why would African-Americans want to register to vote? Elect “race friendly”
candidates for local offices to support and protect integration
Elect “race friendly” judges and state officials to support desegregation
Integrate political system
Why did African Americans fail to register to vote? White voter boards
made it difficult or impossible
White bosses would fire African-Americans who pushed to vote
Intimidation by vigilante groups like the KKK
Feelings of political hopelessness- not worth the effort
Registering Voters: Robert Moses Attempts to “Crack Mississippi”
Mississippi- site of most racial violence
SNCC- (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee targets Mississippi “If we can crack Mississippi, we will be
likely to crack the system in the rest of the country.” – John Lewis SNCC Organizer
Starts in Mc Comb, Mississippi- Only 250 black registered voters
Registered only 6 voters in first month
Moses jailed, released and beaten Helper murdered by member of state
legislator Effort yielded only 24 voters
The Freedom Election: 1963 Fear and intimidation
continued to plague most registration drives
Mock election introduced black citizens to voting Invited people to vote
without intimidation Four times the number of
registered voters in Mississippi voted
Introduced people to voting procedures
Prepared for Freedom Summer 1964
Freedom Summer 1964 SNCC worked to
incorporate white volunteers
The 24th Amendment banned the poll tax in federal elections 1 Jan 1964
Freedom Summer 1964 SNCC recruited black
and white volunteers from the north to convince African-Americans to register to vote
The Mississippi Burning Case Andrew Goodman, along
with two CORE workers were reported missing on 21 June
Targeted by the KKK and arrested and held in police custody in Philadelphia, Mississippi (“suspected” of an arson committed by the KKK on a black church)
Never reported back to CORE headquarters
Bodies found buried in an earthen dam 6 weeks later after a federal investigation
Selma and Bloody Sunday: 7 March 1964 In Selma, 383 of 1500 eligible
African-Americans were eligible were registered to vote
Protesters called for a march from Selma to the capital, Montgomery
Governor Wallace banned the march
Sunday March 7, 1964, marchers were beaten as they crossed the bridge out of Selma
Voter’s Right Act of 1965 Outraged by the actions
at Selma, President Johnson urged Congress to pass a Voting Rights Act
Act passed by August Put voter registration
process under federal control
Voter registration rates for African-Americans in the south would skyrocket
The Consequences Local elected officials in the south who
worked against civil rights would lose their support
Elected officials had to be more interested in their expanded multi-racial electorate
African-Americans less dependent on white patrons/sympathy
See text 932: What thesis might you make about the Voting Rights Act that is supported by the map?