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Freed Slaves In The United States

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At the end of the Civil War, freed slaves had no rights. In an attempt to remedy the Civil War, amendments were passed in the years after the conflict.The 15th amendment established in March 30, 1870 introduced that no voting rights shall not be denied in the United States or by any state because of race, color or previous conditions of work. Yet most African Americans will never get to vote. The Jim Crow Laws in the South found a way around the 15th amendment to deny the right to vote to most freed slaves. This was done mostly by the use of literacy test, poll taxes and intimidation and terror. The amendment declined to protect freed slaves voting rights and helped restored white supremacy in the south. The voting rights act failed to protect …show more content…

White Supremacist Groups such as The White League, Ku Klux Klan, The Knights of Camelia and many more other groups attempted to prevent the 15th amendment by the use of violence. These white supremacy groups were successful in the act of keeping republican voters and freed slaves from voting or turning them into democrats. “We nail all, radicals up in Boxes and send them away to K K K - there is. 200 000 ded men retured to this country to make you and all the rest of the radicals good Democrats and vote right with the white people you have got it to do or leave this country no nigger is safe unless he Joins the Democratic Club then you will be safe and have friends (Onion, Rebecca)”. Even though the establishment of the 15th amendment especifically mentioned that no voting rights shall not be denied by any race, color, or previous condition of work. White Supremacist groups were able to found a way around the amendment to be able to keep freed slaves and republican voters from voting or making them vote for democrats by the use of intimidation, violence which was never against the law and no accusations were made even though knowing the who they were. When the federal troops left in the Missouri Compromise of 1877 left, freed slaves and republican voters remained unprotected and eventually white supremacy was restored in the South and continued for almost another 100 …show more content…

As most blacks couldn’t read, Literacy Test reduced massively freed slaves who wanted to register to vote as well as did Poll Taxes because it was too expensive for them to pay. Intimidation also reduced the numbers freed slaves that wanted to register to vote as they were under constant threatening. The Voting Rights Act failed to rebuild the nation as freed slaves rights were not protected by the constitution and eventually help restore White Supremacy in the South that would eventually last for another 100

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As a result of this, racist organizations were founded to wreaked havoc on former slaves. Secret societies in the southern united states, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia used violence against the blacks. Their goal was often to keep blacks out of politics. Our textbook states, “In other states, where blacks were a majority or where the populations of the two races were almost equal, whites used outright intimidation and violence to undermine the Reconstruction regimes” (Brinkley 368). The people involved in such organizations were using violence to take away the fifteenth amendment right from the former slaves.

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With the Voting Rights Act the legislation removed the rigged literacy tests to vote allowing more African Americans to be eligible to vote. (American Journey pg.668) With peaceful protest it appealed to Presidential action and support for African

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This suppression came through the establishment of Jim Crow laws, and anti-black violence. Whites had feared that blacks could have a lot of influence in the political sphere, and thus used violence as a fear tactic to prevent blacks from voting. Literacy tests and poll taxes were also used as methods to keep blacks from voting, particularly because many of them were not educated or could not afford to pay the taxes to vote. The passing of Jim Crow laws also fueled the political and social

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Southern states that did not favor that African Americans being able to vote made it difficult for them by using literary test, threats and violence. So in 1963 SNCC did the Freedom Ballot which resulted in to almost

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The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “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.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

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African Americans were allowed to vote however they were intimidated fear their lives to both so it was useless. Newly freed slaves were aided through the usage of federal laws and constitutional amendments. Former slaves were enabled to vote, own property, legally marriage, receive and education and file lawsuits. This extended the power of the newly freedmen. Women were jealous because they still weren't allowed to vote or have a say in

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Most were denied the right to vote. A special tax, the poll tax, was required of all voters but was to expensive for blacks. Voters were forced to pass a literacy test. Due to some African American’s unavailability of education

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In 1856 the vote shifted to all white males. In 1870 the right to vote was given to all African Americans, but it did not last because of Southern State’s Jim Crow laws in 1889. These disenfranchisement laws were placed to once again limit the rights of all Black Americans. To severely prohibit the ability for blacks to vote, people did all they could to make it as difficult as possible for most free slaves and their next generation to simply stay out of the nominations entirely. These Southern states would remake franchise laws to enable a strict regulation on being eligible to vote.

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The Fifteenth Amendment, revised in 1992, reads, “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” (“United States of America 1789”). That amendment was implemented to protect all people’s voting rights, and is just a part of what has been done to protect people of all races. However, despite what was implemented, it took an extensive amount of time to go into effect, partially due to the Jim Crow laws. They were informal laws that enforced racial segregation until 1965. An example of a Jim Crow law is, “It shall be unlawful for a negro and a white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers” (“Jim Crow Laws”).

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