2 ms·
In the U.S. context, Black people were deliberately deprived of the right to vote for most of the country's history via seemingly-neutral requirements that were
by erehweb 5y ago
In the U.S. context, Black people were deliberately deprived of the right to vote for most of the country's history via seemingly-neutral requirements that were designed to stop their participation. Voter ID as proposed is an attempt to re-introduce one of these requirements.
- 0xcde4c3db 5y ago> seemingly-neutral requirements that were designed to stop their participation This is notably the origin of the term "grandfather clause", although its current meaning is subtly different from the original sense. The 15th Amendment made it illegal for states to deny the right to vote directly on the basis of race, so instead they imposed new poll taxes and "literacy tests" (which were not designed as true tests, but rather as instruments to allow poll workers to arbitrarily "pass" and "fail" would-be voters), while exempting those whose grandfathers were eligible to vote before a specific date.