Voting Rights In Texas

Chris Lawson
Professor Garrison
Govt 2308 11:00
7 April, 2014
“Voting Rights”
During the late 1800’s, there were several controversies that dealt with whether or not African Americans and Mexican Americans should be allowed vote, yet alone gain citizenship. Riots, murders, and burning were the result of the big issue. Over the next century these minorities dealt with cruel discrimination and far more segregation then there ever was. Topics including white primaries and poll taxes excluded them from voting.
The Mexican American and African American populations in Texas dealt with many years of voting discrimination and political exclusion. During the early 1900s, poll taxes, direct primaries, and white primaries were adopted with the…show more content…
Regardless of passing this amendment, “many Southern states undertook a mandatory poll tax with regard to the provision of suffrage to individuals of all races and creeds”(An Overview of the 15th Amendment).
Women were also among the minority for voting. After slavery was abolished, women wanted more rights to go their way, this includes voting. Efforts to include women in the voting rights failed multiple times. In 1875, “African American males finally won suffrage rights in the state constitution,” but women were still denied the right until the 19th amendment passed in 1920. This prohibited United States citizens being denied the right to vote on the basis of their sex.
In the end, African Americans, Latinos, and women took harsh pain and suffrage to get where they are today. Literacy tests, Jim Crow laws, grandfather clauses, poll taxes kept African Americans and Mexican Americans from voting either because they couldn’t read, didn’t have enough money or they did have family decent from the US. Women unfortunately were put in the background and forgotten about until they spoke up. With the help of organizations and the government stepping up, all of the laws made throughout the years to finally accept the minorities and give them the right to vote plus considerably more. This has shaped America to the beautiful country…show more content…
Rivas. "Voting Rights in Texas 1982- 2006." MALDEF. N.p., June 2006. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. <<https://www.aclu.org/voting- rights-act-major-dates-history>.>.
American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. <https://www.aclu.org/voting- rights-act-major-dates-history>.
Ed. Charlie Savage and Manny Fernadez. “The New York Times.” N.p., 30 Aug. 2012. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/court-blocks-tough-voter-id-law-in- texas.html?_r=1&>.
An Overview of the 15th Amendment. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.