Topic 2: Excluding black voters

Question 1

what were pseudo-scientific race theories?

Answer 1

theories that presented black people as less evolved that white people, and therefore inferior and not able to vote

Question 2

how was white violence used to exclude black voters?

Answer 2

white supremacist groups used violence and intimidation to stop black voting, for example outside polling stations

Question 3

how did white southerners attempt to decrease black representation?

Answer 3

by redrawing constituency boundaries

Question 4

what is an example of constituency boundaries being redrawn?

Answer 4

1880- the South Carolina legislature redrew congressional districts. BA were concentrated in a ‘shoestring district’

Question 5

example of fraud to exclude black voters?

Answer 5

white Mississippi voting officials maintained that mules ate ballot papers from black-majority counties

Question 6

what was the poll tax?

Answer 6

would-be voters had to pau poll tax to register to vote. disproportionately affect black voters

Question 7

example of the impact of the poll tax?

Answer 7

Arkansas- 71% of black electorate voted in 1890, but only 9% voted after a poll tax was introduced

Question 8

how did literacy tests exclude black voters?

Answer 8

impossibly difficult and unclear, especially for BA who weren’t as well educated

Question 9

what were grandfather clauses?

Answer 9

meant a man could vote if he could prove that an ancestor had been able to vote before Reconstruction

Question 10

when did Louisiana introduce a new state constitution that made voting difficult for black people?

Answer 10

1898

Question 11

what is an example of something that made voting difficult for BA in Louisiana’s new state constitution?

Answer 11

grandfather clause

Question 12

what was the impact of Louisiana’s new state constitution on black voters?

Answer 12

made it difficult to vote.
1896- over 130,000 black voters
1910- only 730 black voters!

Question 13

how many black voters did Louisiana have in 1910?

Answer 13

only 730

Question 14

what was the white primary?

Answer 14

introduced by the Democrats - only white people could choose the candidate to represent the party. all of the south were Democrats - no black person could choose candidate to represent them

Question 15

what proportion of black southern males could vote by 1900?

Answer 15

3%

Question 16

only 3% of black southern males could vote by….

Answer 16

1900