African-American Struggle to Vote in Texas

Meera Shaw

Senior Division

Historical Paper

Word Count: 2210

Prior to the American Revolutionary War, British colonists sought independence from

Great Britain, frustrated by their lack of representation in the colonies.1 The founding of the

United States as a democracy was based on the idea of popular sovereignty, the ability of her

citizens to have a voice in government. American democracy is derived from the vote.2 Vote. n.,

a formal expression of opinion or choice, either positive or negative, expressed by an individual

or body of individuals.3 Although the definition of voting seems simple, the right for African-

Americans to vote has never been straightforward. Before the passage of the 15th Amendment in

1869, Frederick Douglass, an African-American abolitionist once said,

It is said we are ignorant; admit it. But if we know enough to be hung, we know

enough to vote. If the Negro knows enough to pay taxes to support the

government, he knows enough to vote; taxation and representation should go

together.4

After much deliberation, the 15th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1869 and ratified in

1870, stating that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or

abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of

servitude.”5 After the passage of the 15th Amendment, African-Americans explored their right to

vote, only to be restricted shortly thereafter by the Compromise of 1877.

1 Slyvanus, “A Political Problem,” Smithsonian Source, accessed February 15, 2016, http://www.smithsoniansource.org/display/primarysource/viewdetails.aspx?TopicId=&PrimarySourceId=1007.

2 Independence Hall Association, “Ic. What Is a Democracy,” ushistory.org, accessed January 9, 2016, http://www.ushistory.org/gov/1c.asp.

3 Dictionary.com, "Vote.," Dictionary.com, accessed January 21, 2016, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vote.4

Lionel C. Bascom, “Voices of the African American Experience,” ABC-CLIO (2009).

5 U.S. Constitution. Amend. XV

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Early Exploration of the African-American Right to Vote

To preface, the presidential election of 1876 was a controversial election in which

Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, won the popular vote with 184 electoral votes, and

Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, lost the popular vote with 163 electoral votes.6 22

electoral votes were undecided. In the Compromise of 1877, the 22 undecided electoral votes and

the presidency, were awarded to Hayes in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the

south both physically and politically.7 This not only ended Reconstruction, but it also ended

protection of African-American voters in the south.8 While technically African-Americans’ still

had the right to vote, in practice, their right was severely restricted.9

Why was the African-American vote so threatening? African-Americans as a community

were very large in number and when given the opportunity to vote, could easily sway the

outcome of an election. Partnering with a few white allies in the southern states, African-

Americans had worked to elect Republican leaders, who were despised by the southern

establishment.10 The Republican leaders sought to make thorough changes to the southern way of

life by incorporating African-Americans into the political and societal landscapes. However, the

Compromise of 1877 allowed the former confederates to boot the Republican officials out of

Southern politics.11 With no intervention by northern states or the federal government, southern

6 Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, “Electoral Commission of 1877,” EBSCOhost, accessed January 13, 2016.

7 Ibid.8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 History.com Staff, “Fifteenth Amendment,” History.com, accessed January 12, 2016, http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fifteenth-amendment. 11

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states, specifically Texas, were able to deny African-Americans their 15th Amendment right to

vote. Through encounters with poll taxes, literacy tests, gerrymandering, white only primaries,

violence, and various other methods of prevention, Texas and other southern state governments

were able to effectively disenfranchise African-American residents of their states.

Encounters with Tools of Disenfranchisement in Texas and other Southern States

One of the most common tools of disenfranchisement was the states’ use of poll taxes.

Not only were African-Americans kept from voting, but poor whites and immigrants were

disenfranchised as well. Poll taxes ranged from $1.50 to $1.75, and at this time, this was a

significant cost just to register to vote. In over half of the states, the tax was cumulative and the

state added $1.50 every year.12 With extreme poverty, many African-American males could not

afford to pay one to two days of income just to register to vote.13

In Texas and other southern states, those who could afford to pay poll taxes were also

required to pass literacy tests. Literacy tests were specific, difficult, and oftentimes corrupt.

Passing a literacy test was subject to the registrar’s discretion, and just one wrong answer would

constitute failure. If an African-American happened to pass the literacy test, the registrar would

verbally ask other subjective questions about the U.S. Constitution and the state constitution. No

matter how correct the potential voter’s answers were, the registrar would always find a way to

Ibid. 12

Dallas Public Library, “Voting Rights: The Poll Tax,” Marion Butts Collection, accessed December 22, 2015, https://dallaslibrary2.org/mbutts/assets/lessons/L9-voting+rights/Marion%20Butts%20-%20Voting%20Rights(PPT).pdf.13

PBS, "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow," PBS.org, accessed January 15, 2016, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_poll.html.

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fail him.14 In one particular case, an African-American male aced both the literacy test and the

verbal test despite the fact that the registrar had asked him outrageous questions such as, “What

is the first line of the thirty-second paragraph of the United States Constitution?” After a few

questions of this sort, the registrar became frustrated with the intelligence and determination of

the African-American man. Finally, the registrar handed him a Chinese newspaper and asked

him to read it. The man could not read the newspaper, but replied, “It says this is one Negro in

Mississippi who’s not going to get to vote this year.” 15

The few African-Americans who could pay poll taxes and ace literacy tests cast votes

engulfed in opposition. Another prevalent disenfranchisement technique, gerrymandering, the act

of manipulating county boundaries to flush out opposing political voices, ensured that the few

blacks who were able to vote were the minority in the electoral college, thereby rendering their

vote meaningless.16

Perhaps the most serious tool of disenfranchisement, violence and voter-intimidation at

the polls, made voting for African-Americans dangerous not only for themselves, but also their

families. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized African-Americans physically; they beat, raped, and/or

murdered African-Americans who registered to vote.17 In Georgia, six year old Dorothy Nixon

Williams witnessed her father being shot by two white men after he had registered to vote at the

14 Andrew Kirshenbaum, “The Injustice of the Poll Tax and Why It Took a Constitutional Amendment to Stop It,” Fair Vote: Right to Vote Initiative, accessed January 22, 2016, http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=87515

John H. Griffin, Black Like Me (London, UK: Penguin Group, 1961).

16 Emily Barasch, “The Twisted History of Gerrymandering in American Politics,” The Atlantic, accessed December 22, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/the-twisted-history-of-gerrymandering-in-american-politics/262369/#slide5.

17 Bruce Hartford, "Voting Rights: Are You "Qualified" to Vote?" Crmvet.org, accessed January 14, 2016, http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm.

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primary election for Georgia governor. Mr. Nixon was shot by J. A. and Johnny Johnson when

he voted on September 8, 1948 after white only primaries had been outlawed by the Supreme

Court. The homicide attracted the media, and when the Johnson brothers were charged with

murder, they were acquitted in a one-day trial by an all-white jury.18

Not only did white supremacists kill African-American families, they also bombed and

set fire to their homes and churches.19 The White Citizen’s Council terrorized African-Americans

economically and socially. Registered voters were threatened with eviction from their land, loss

of their jobs, foreclosure of their property, and denial of bank loans among many others.20 The

white supremacists were seen as people who wanted to protect the southern way of life and

southern heritage, rather than what would be seen as terrorism today.21 Police intimidation and

violence spanned from local to state police forces. African-Americans were harassed and beaten

when trying to register.22 Registered voters would be arrested on false charges and the

consequences would be directed towards individuals and their families, children included.23

Those whose duty it was to protect against harm were often the ones inflicting harm on the ones

they should have been protecting. In some states, the name and address of the registered voter

18 Cameron McWhirter. "Class Probes Jim Crow-Era Killings," The Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2016.

19 Bruce Hartford, “Voting Rights: Are You "Qualified" to Vote?"

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Bruce Hartford, “Voting Rights: Are You "Qualified" to Vote?"23

Ibid.

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would be published in the newspaper, resulting in the inhabitants of the house living under the

constant duress of intimidation.24

A combination of these various methods of disenfranchisement contributed to the fear

and bravery associated with an African-American voting. As they explored their 15th

Amendment right to vote, they encountered overwhelming negativity. Most African-Americans

did not vote after their encounters with these methods of disenfranchisement. The few African-

Americans who surmounted the voting obstacles served as inspiration to the rest of the African-

American community.

White Primaries in Texas

Perhaps the most insidious tool of disenfranchisement was white only primaries. While

many southern states implemented white only primaries, Texas was at the forefront in its battle

to continue its use of the white only primary. In 1923, the Texas legislature enacted a statute that

barred all African-Americans from the Democratic primary elections, stating, "in no event shall a

negro be eligible to participate in a Democratic party primary election held in the State of Texas”

and “should a negro vote in a Democratic primary election, such ballot shall be void.”25 The

Texas legislature took its cue from the 1921 Supreme Court decision in Newberry v. United

States in which the Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not have the power to manage

24 Learn NC, "The Struggle for Voting Rights," UNC School of Education, accessed January 14, 2016, http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-postwar/6031.

25 Public Resource Inc., "Nixon v. Condon et al.," Public Resource Inc., accessed January 13, 2016, https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/US/286/286.US.73.265.html.

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primary election or political party nomination processes.26 This decision emphasized to the Texas

legislature that the Supreme Court would regard primaries as a states’ rights issue.27

Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon, an African-American professional residing in Texas, was denied

his vote in the Democratic white primary. With the help of the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People, Nixon questioned the constitutionality of the Texas statute by

filing suit. In Nixon v. Herndon (1927), the Supreme Court held that this statute violated the 14th

Amendment’s equal protection clause, which states that:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or

immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person

of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny any person within

its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.28

The Texas legislature then amended this statute to comply with the Supreme Court ruling

in Nixon v. Herndon, by allowing political parties to stipulate their own membership

qualifications.29 The membership qualifications included being white. Again, Dr. Nixon disputed

the amended Texas statute in court. In Nixon v. Condon, Nixon won again, in a 5-4 decision, and

the Supreme Court ruled that although political parties are private associations, the prevention of

African-Americans from voting was a delegation of state law to the Democratic party, and

therefore it violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.30

26 Sanford, N. Greenberg, "White Primary," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed January 11, 2016, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wdw01.27

Ibid.

28 U.S. Constitution. Amend. XIV29

Greenberg, "White Primary." 30

Angelyque P. Campbell, "Nixon v. Condon," Study The Past, accessed January 14, 2016, http://studythepast.com/378_spring11/cases/nixon_v_condon.pdf.

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In August of 1932, Miriam “Ma” Ferguson won the Democratic primary against Ross

Sterling for Texas governor. Sterling filed an election contest, protesting Ferguson’s victory,

alleging that Ferguson had been voted into office illegally because African-Americans had been

allowed to vote for her. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Sterling’s allegations could not be

decided upon, and that Ferguson would be the Democratic party’s nominee for Governor.

Despite Ferguson remaining in office, Sterling’s allegations accentuated the severity of

opposition to African-American’s ability to vote in Texas and the continued pursuit of white only

primaries.31

James Allred, the Texas attorney general, upheld the actions of the Democratic executive

committee, which had previously decided the membership qualifications of the party, and Allred

“issued an official opinion endorsing the legitimacy of the convention’s action.”32 Again, the

Democratic primaries were restricted to whites only. In 1935, Richard Grovey, an African-

American barber residing in Houston, was denied admission to the Democratic primary. Grovey

and his attorneys filed suit and their case made it to the Supreme Court. In Grovey v. Townsend,

the Supreme Court ruled that political parties were private organizations that could determine the

qualifications for membership.33 After Grovey v. Townsend, African-American’s right to vote

was not constitutionally protected. With support of the NAACP, in 1944, another Houstonian,

Lonnie E. Smith, attempted to vote in a Democratic primary. The Supreme Court in Smith v.

Allwright overturned Grovey v. Townsend in an 8-1 decision. The majority opinion stated that

31 Chief Justice James Worther, "The Struggle of African Americans to Vote in Texas," Texas Bar Journal, March 2012, p. 212.

32 Greenberg, "White Primary."

33 Angelyque P. Campbell, "Grovey v. Townsend," Study the Past, accessed January 11, 2016, http://studythepast.com/378_spring11/cases/grovey_v_townsend.pdf.

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Texas state laws made the Democratic primary a fundamental component of the election process,

and therefore the law violated the 14th Amendment equal protection rights of African-

Americans.34 Smith v Allwright ended African-American’s two-decade long struggle in Texas

against white only primaries and resulted in a 70% increase in their voting between 1940 and

1947.35 Although an enormous triumph for the African-American community, other barriers to

voting still continued to persist.

Political and Social Exchange

As a result of the hardships African-Americans suffered for equality, two crucial and far-

reaching pieces of legislation were passed. A few provisions of The Civil Rights Act of 1964

included the outlaw of discrimination in public places, including hotels, restaurants, theaters,

etc.; the prohibition of state and municipal governments from denying access to public facilities

on the basis of race, religion, gender, or national origin; the prohibition of discrimination of

employers on the grounds of race, color, religion, gender, or ethnicity, as well as the prohibition

of discrimination against an individual based on his or her association with another individual of

a specific race, religion, gender, or national origin. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also made it

easier for people to move civil rights related cases from state courts to federal court, where there

was a greater likelihood of a fair trial.36

34 NAACP Legal Defense Fund, "Landmark: Smith v. Allwright," NAACP Legal Defense Fund, accessed January 9, 2016, http://www.naacpldf.org/case/smith-v-allwright.

35 Greenberg, "White Primary."

36 National Archives, "Teaching With Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission," National Archives, accessed January 13, 2016, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/.

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The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made preventing someone from voting on the basis of

race, religion, gender, or ethnicity, or association with someone of a particular race, religion,

gender, or ethnicity illegal. It also required states to clear any new practices or procedures with

the federal government before the new practice could be implemented. The Voting Rights Act of

1965 served to eliminate legal barriers to African-Americans exercising their 15th Amendment

right to vote. 37

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were two monumental

victories that changed the face of America. Although the long civil rights narrative38 has not yet

concluded, an abundance of progress towards equality was made when these two essential pieces

of legislation were passed. The Civil Rights Movement peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, but it is

far from over. States continue to pass legislation today that disproportionately affects African-

Americans’ right to vote, and the struggle for equal representation continues. The ideal

democracy has yet to be achieved.

37 NAACP, "NAACP History: Voting Rights Act," NAACP, accessed January 10, 2016, http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-voting-rights-act.

38 Jacquelyn D. Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” The Journal of American History (2005).

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Primary Sources

Slyvanus. “A Political Problem,” Smithsonian Source. Accessed February 15, 2016. http://www.smithsoniansource.org/display/primarysource/viewdetails.aspx?TopicId=&PrimarySourceId=1007.

Annotation: Sylvanus is a colonist who spoke of the injustice by the British parliament. He is upset with the lack of representation in the colonies. This was important to my research because it shows the analogy that the southern states were to the African-Americans as the British parliament was to the British colonists. It helped me to better understand the frustration felt by the African-American population with an analogy that we studied in U.S. History class. This also shows that history repeats itself. British colonists were angered by their lack of representation and African-Americans were angered by their lack of ability to represent themselves due to the extensive effort by the Southern establishment to disenfranchise them.

U.S. Constitution. Amendment XIV

Annotation: The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution was important in voting rights cases because the Supreme Court used the amendment to strike down voting laws that discriminated against African-Americans. The 14th Amendment extended citizenship to all of those who were born in the United States, therefore making African-Americans citizens. With this amendment, African-Americans, minorities, and all U.S. citizens are guaranteed equal protection of the laws against the states. The 14th and 15th Amendments were important to my research because they were the basis for the rights given to African-Americans and the basis for the rights that were denied to African-Americans.

U.S. Constitution. Amendment XV

Annotation: The 15th Amendment gave United States citizens the right to vote. It protected U.S. citizens from being denied their vote on the basis of color, race, or previous condition of servitude. Despite this amendment, there were decades of discrimination that prevented African-Americans from voting in the South. The problem at this time, was that the 15th Amendment was not being enforced. This amendment was extremely important because it explicitly stated that any U.S. citizen’s right to vote should not be abridged on the basis of skin color and this is exactly what was happening in the south.

Secondary Sources

Barasch, Emily. “The Twisted History of Gerrymandering in American Politics.” The Atlantic. Accessed December 22, 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/the-twisted-history-of-gerrymandering-in-american-politics/262369/#slide5.

Annotation: This article has a small insert on “State-Sanctioned Gerrymandering” which clarified what the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did in order to prevent state officials from toying with boundary lines to manipulate the electoral college in their favor. This article also defined

12

gerrymandering and provided me with other examples of gerrymandering to further my understanding of the concept.

Bascom, Lionel C. “Voices of the African American Experience.” ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Annotation: The famous quote by Frederick Douglass speaks to inequalities faced by African-Americans. It shows that African-Americans are capable of doing anything that a white man can, but they are still denied the right to vote. Douglass references a grievance from the Declaration of Independence, that taxation and representation should, indeed, go together. This quote is important to my research because Frederick Douglass was a successful author and orator, and was still denied his right to vote.

Campbell, Angelyque P. "Grovey v. Townsend." Study the Past. Accessed January 11, 2016. http://studythepast.com/378_spring11/cases/grovey_v_townsend.pdf.

Annotation: This excerpt summarized Grovey v. Townsend in simple terms. I learned that Grovey v. Townsend was a unanimous decision that was in favor of the state of Texas prohibiting African-Americans from voting in Democratic primaries on that basis of this practice being a private party practice. While this decision was overturned in Smith v. Allwright, this decision shows the struggle that even the highest court in the United States faced when dealing with African-American voting rights.

Campbell, Angelyque P. "Nixon v. Condon." Study The Past. Accessed January 14, 2016. http://studythepast.com/378_spring11/cases/nixon_v_condon.pdf.

Annotation: This excerpt summarized Nixon v. Condon in terms of Nixon v. Herndon. In this article, I learned that Nixon v. Condon was a 5-4 decision, showing that it was a controversial decision. This excerpt also summarized the case in simple terms, which made it a lot easier for me to understand the case and the ruling.

Dallas Public Library. “Voting Rights: The Poll Tax.” Marion Butts Collection. Accessed December 22, 2015. https://dallaslibrary2.org/mbutts/assets/lessons/L9-voting+rights/Marion%20Butts%20-%20Voting%20Rights(PPT).pdf.

Annotation: This presentation shows the significant costs associated with voting, in Texas specifically. Generally, it gave a timeline history of the poll tax in Texas, spanning from when the poll tax was instated to when it was outlawed. This presentation was important to my research because it allowed me to understand how much the poll tax actually cost compared to the income of the average African-American, and how the poll tax was just one of the many trials that African-Americans had to overcome.

Dictionary.com. "Vote." Dictionary.com. Accessed January 21, 2016. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vote.

13

Annotation: The definition of vote is critical to our idea of democracy. Without the vote, people cannot have a voice in our country. This is important to my paper because it gives the reader a basis for how easy the ability to vote should have been.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. “Electoral Commission of 1877.” EBSCOhost. Accessed January 13, 2016.

Annotation: This article explains the Compromise of 1877 and how the election of President Hayes resulted in the withdrawal of the federal government in the south. This ended the protection of African-American voters. This article was important to my research because it helped me to understand why African-Americans were able to vote after the passage of the 15th Amendment, while Reconstruction after the Civil War was still taking place, and why suddenly the right was taken away when the Compromise of 1877 essentially ended Reconstruction.

Greenberg, Sanford N. "White Primary." Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed January 11, 2016. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wdw01.

Annotation: This article was where I got the idea for my paper in the first place. It summarized the entire era in which white primaries were established in Texas, from after Reconstruction, ended by the Compromise of 1877, to the late 40s, after white only primaries were outlawed in Smith v. Allwright. This article was essential to the construction of my paper because it talked about white only primaries specifically in Texas.

Griffin, John H. Black Like Me. London, UK: Penguin Group, 1961.

Annotation: John Griffin, a white man who lived in Texas, altered his skin medically to look darker, to pass as a black man. He wrote this to show the hardships of being black from a white man’s perspective, making him, at the time, more reliable than a black man writing of the hardships of being a black man. This book was important to my research, not only because it gave me the story of the black man who had passed the literacy test and the oral questions by the registrar, but couldn’t read Chinese and therefore could not vote, but because it gave me a glimpse of the harsh reality of being an African-American in the south.

Hall, Jacquelyn D. “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past.” The Journal of American History. 2005.

Annotation: This article in The Journal of American History shows that the Civil Rights Movement is still going on today. The Civil Rights Movement is highlighted by many noteworthy events, but the long civil rights narrative is not yet over. This was important to my paper because it serves to show that while the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act made extensive progress, there is still progress to be made.

Hartford, Bruce. "Voting Rights: Are You "Qualified" to Vote?" Crmvet.org. Accessed January 14, 2016. http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm.

14

Annotation: This website showed the different types of violence associated with African-Americans voting. It also gave different literacy test examples that you could print out and take. This website allowed me to take literacy tests myself to understand how difficult they actually were. Literacy tests were complicated, vague, and sometimes it was difficult to understand what the question was even asking you to do. The website also gave brief summarizations of various tools of disenfranchisement in general.

History.com Staff. “Fifteenth Amendment.” History.com. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fifteenth-amendment.

Annotation: This article explains the history of the 15th Amendment from passage to finally the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and everything in between. This article was extremely important to my research because it gave me a general timeline of events that occurred in voting rights from when the 15th Amendment was ratified and passed up until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While the 15th Amendment gave African-Americans the right to vote, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, nearly 100 years later, enforced the 15th Amendment. This shows that it took nearly 100 years for African-Americans to exercise the right that had been granted to them.

Kirshenbaum, Andrew. “The Injustice of the Poll Tax and Why It Took a Constitutional Amendment to Stop It.” Fair Vote: Right to Vote Initiative. Accessed January 22, 2016. http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=875.

Annotation: This article contains general, non state specific, information about the poll tax. This was beneficial to my research because the article talked specifically about the impact of poll taxes on African-American voting leading up to the passage of the 24th Amendment which protected citizens from being denied their vote if they failed to pay a poll tax. While I did not mention the 24th Amendment in my paper because it had to do with poll taxes rather than white only primaries, the passage of the 24th Amendment was also an important victory for the African-American community, and this article made me aware of the amendment’s passage.

Learn NC. "The Struggle for Voting Rights." UNC School of Education. Accessed January 14, 2016. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-postwar/6031.

Annotation: This article was important in showing harm African-Americans faced when exercising their right to vote. It gave a general timeline of voting challenges faced by African- Americans and aided my paper in giving specific examples of what would be done to an African- American and their family if they even registered to vote.

McWhirter, Cameron. "Class Probes Jim Crow-Era Killings." The Wall Street Journal. January 25, 2016.

Annotation: This newspaper article was primarily about college students at Emory University uncovering Jim Crow-Era killings. Dorothy Nixon Williams’s father, Isiah Nixon was shot by two white men after he had voted in a primary election for Georgia governor. This was only one incident among many Jim Crow-Era killings. This newspaper article was helpful to me, because it put a face on the hardships and violence that African-Americans faced in the Jim Crow-Era.

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NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "Landmark: Smith v. Allwright." NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Accessed January 9, 2016. http://www.naacpldf.org/case/smith-v-allwright.

Annotation: This background showed, in detail, the overturning of Grovey v. Townsend by the landmark decision of Smith v. Allwright. Smith v. Allwright was a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court. This article talks about Thurgood Marshall, who argued on the behalf of the plaintiff, that Texas’s primary system allowed whites to dominate Southern politics, and that this practice violated the 14th and 15th Amendments.

NAACP. "NAACP History: Voting Rights Act." NAACP. Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-voting-rights-act.

Annotation: This article outlines the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the events leading up to its passage in simpler terms. It also outlines the 2007 provisions of the Voting Rights Act in depth. This was important to my research because the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are what ultimately enforced the 15th Amendment which was passed almost 100 years before.

National Archives. "Teaching With Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission." National Archives. Accessed January 13, 2016. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/.

Annotation: This article gave the specific provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in simpler terms. This source was beneficial to my research because it helped me to realize just how extensive the Civil Rights Act of 1964 actually was, and how great of an impact that it made. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 covered a lot of ground and did not leave much, if any, room to circumvent it.

PBS. "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow." PBS.org. Accessed January 15, 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_poll.html.

Annotation: This interactive website showed the hardships and costs associated with voting. The website would give you a scenario, such as, “You are told that in order to be eligible to vote, you must pay a poll tax. If you are like most African-Americans in the South, you cannot afford it.” Then, you can reply to either pay the poll tax and try to vote, or to not pay the poll tax. You continue to answer scenarios until you reach the final scenario of the sheriff pointing his gun at you implying that he will kill you before he lets you vote. This interactive website was important to my own personal knowledge of the actual sequence of events that would occur if you passed each obstacle (poll taxes, transportation issues, violence, etc.), because it allowed me to make my own decisions in regards to voting and realize what would have actually happened to me had I been an African-American trying to vote before the Voting Rights Act.

Public Resource Inc. "Nixon v. Condon et al." Public Resource Inc. Accessed January 13, 2016. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/US/286/286.US.73.265.html.

Annotation: This website was important in showing the decision in simpler terms of Nixon v. Condon. This resource gave me specific provisions of the decision of Nixon v. Condon, as well

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as the previous decision in the Court of Appeals. Nixon, was an African-American doctor in Texas who tried to vote and was denied after the Supreme Court had already ruled in Nixon v. Herndon that prohibiting African-Americans from voting in primary elections was a clear violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. This is important because it shows the persistency of the Southern establishment to prohibit African-Americans from voting.

"What Is a Democracy?" American Government: The Nature of Government. Accessed March 15, 2016. http://www.ushistory.org/gov/1c.asp.

Annotation: This article on the nature of government defined democracy. Different types of democracy were defined, but the general definition was a government that gives power to the people, so in essence, power is given to the people through the ability to vote. This article was important to my research because it provided me with a general definition of what a democracy is and should be in order to lay a foundation for why the inability for African-Americans to vote in the United States until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was against the definition of democracy.

Worther, Chief Justice James. "The Struggle of African Americans to Vote in Texas." Texas Bar Journal, March 2012.

Annotation: This article gave the example of Miriam Ferguson and showed the hardships that African-Americans faced to vote through the fact that Ferguson’s victory was called into question because African-Americans were able to vote for her. Governor “Ma” Ferguson’s ability to govern Texas well was based on the amount of white people who voted for her, not black people. This notion was not only derogatory towards African-American voters, but Governor Ferguson as well.

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