Voting Restrictions
Chapter 8-3
All southern states would not allow African Americans to vote, and some states limited the vote to only people that could read. Even though these voting restrictions took place around Segregation the African Americans were not the only ones effected by these Voting Restrictions.
African Americans trying to vote were often asked more difficult questions then the whites, and the officials could pass or fail anyone they wanted to because they had a lot of the power.
Another voting restriction was the Poll Tax. This stated that you had to pay this tax before you could even qualify to vote. Many people were to poor to afford this tax.
Several states in the South added to Grandfather Clause to the Constitution, and this clause stated that if you failed the literary test or were to poor to afford the Poll Tax you were still entitled to vote if he, father, or grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867. This date was important at the time because freed slaves did not have the right to vote.
There was another Voting Restriction and this applied to the Chinese. In 1882 Congress passed the Exclusion Act, and this Act denied citizenship and Voting Rights to the Chinese Americans.
Many people were effected by many of these acts and laws, but if you were a white man who owned land you didn't have a problem to vote.
I think and I know that the African Americans were not accepted with the white man. Voting was a major deal back in those days. Everyone wasn't treated equally.
Sources:
http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/voting-rights-act-timeline#1800s
The book page 287.
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