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?