Voting Discrimination Quotes
Surprisingly to most of us, Indians and Blacks could vote in Virginia before 1723. They could even hold public office until 1705 when Virginia passed a law banning that. See Quotation 643587. 18 years later the Virginia legislature also outlawed these minorities from voting as this quotation demonstrates.
The President was asking for passage of his Voting Rights Bill.
Preclearance was a requirement that any change in the voting or registration laws, rules or procedures needed to be approved by the Federal Justice Department. He was testifying about why preclearance was important and why it was placed in the Voting Rights Act every time it was reauthorized. See {635271} for what happens without preclearance.
It was commonly asked of Blacks applying to register. There are few people who could give a cogent response to this. What made it terrible was that the white racist registrars had the unilateral authority to determine whether or not the oral response was adequate. Recording of responses were prohibited so that no Black who was disenfranchised could ever appeal when he/she was rejected. This is one of the thousands of techniques that were used throughout the South to prevent Negro voting. They were so egregious that Lyndon Johnson was abe to force through Southern filibusters The Voting Rights Act which has eliminated the worst of the racist restrictions on Black voting. As the worst of the racist white generation has died off, Southern discrimination in voting has lessened and the situation is better each year. By 2012 there were some who claimed that the law was no longer necessary do to changes in attitude and practice, but others worried that if there were no longer any forms of discrimination in voting, why some wanted to repeal the Voting Rights Act.
Preclearance was a requirement that any change in the voting or registration laws, rules or procedures needed to be approved by the Federal Justice Department.
In 1895, a Constitutional Convention was held in South Carolina in which there were no Republicans allowed and no Negroes despite the fact that 60 percent of the population at the time was Black. The constitution was do written that it would go into effect without being submitted to the people for any kind of ratification or approval. Essentially a tiny minority of wealthy white men of one particular persuasion not only determined the political future of the state, but also defined the requirements for voting so that this minority could perpetuate itself thereafter.
At the time Negroes were prohibited from voting by a series of discriminatory criteria for voter registration and intimidation so that Blacks would not generally even try to register. But the Civil Rights movement changed tactics and organized large scale attempts at voter registration. Mayor Thompson and the white power structure of the town were not going to allow that. They had not only enlarged the police department but the city purchased an a small armed tank.
