The negro: the southerner's problemPage, Thomas Nelson
History
The negro: the southerner's problem
Page, Thomas Nelson
African Americans; United States -- Race relations
Arkansas, however, excludes from the right to the suffrage those
who have failed to pay the poll-tax. California excludes everyone
unable to read the Constitution in English and to write his name.
Connecticut requires for citizenship that a man shall be a citizen
of the United States who can read the English language. Delaware
requires the payment of a registration fee of $1; Georgia requires
the payment of all taxes since 1877. Louisiana admits only those
able to read and write, or who own $300 worth of property assessed
in their names, or whose father or grandfather was entitled to vote
on January 1, 1867. (This last is the celebrated “Squaw Clause.”)
Massachusetts admits only those who can read and write. Mississippi
admits only those who can read or understand the Constitution when
read to them. Missouri requires voters to have paid their poll-taxes
for the current year. Pennsylvania requires a voter, if twenty-two
years of age or more, to have paid taxes within two years. South
Carolina requires that a voter shall have paid six months prior to
the election any poll-taxes then due, and shall be able to read and
write any section of the State Constitution, or to show that he owns
and has paid the previous year all taxes on property in the State
assessed at $300 or more.
Tennessee requires that a voter shall have paid his poll-tax for the
preceding year. Vermont excludes from the suffrage “those who have
not obtained the approbation of the local board of civil authority.”
Virginia’s qualification for registration is as follows, until 1904:
“First, a person who, prior to the adoption of the Constitution,
served in time of war in the army or navy of the United States or
the Confederate States, or of any State of the United States or
of the Confederate States; or, second, a son of any such person;
or, third, a person who owns property upon which, in the year
next preceding that in which he offers to register, State taxes
aggregating at least $1 have been paid; or, fourth, a person able to
read any section of the Constitution submitted to him by the officers
of registration, and to give a reasonable explanation of the same,
or if unable to read such section, able to understand and give a
reasonable explanation thereof when read to him by the officers.”
Those registering prior to 1904 form a permanent roll. After 1904 the
soldier’s-son clause and the understanding clause are done away with,
and a poll-tax must be paid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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