SEDFRE--Legal Department reference files, Manuscript on Negro voting in Mississippi history (Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality records, 1944-1976; Archives Main Stacks, Mss 546, Box 52 Folder 15)

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@ Wisconsin Historical Society

Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality

Description

This folder contains an undated (1962?), unattributed (Kenneth D. Kemper?) manuscript on the history of restrictions on African Americans' voting in Mississippi from 1791-1962. French, Spanish, and American rule forbade the suffrage to blacks. In fact, the only period of time that black males were technically allowed to vote before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was during Reconstruction from 1868-1890, though violent intimidation from white supremacists grew during that period and corrupt election officials barred voter registration to many. There is a detailed analysis of the 1890 constitution and its explicit designs to exclude blacks from voting through voting tests and the poll tax, and of several mid-twentieth century Mississippi laws to permit the suffrage only to people "of good moral character" (as ascertained by the powerful county registrar) and to discourage black voting through the publication of people's names in the local newspaper who attempted to register to vote.

Type:

Text

Format:

Reports And Surveys

Rights:

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