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 24 th 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?