![]() ![]() But even as culture shifts, whether we're aware of it or not, language has the power to hold our history. The phrase "grandfathered in" is of course still widely used today without the connotation of disenfranchisement. ![]() That meant decades of continued voter suppression, even after the right to vote was granted to all, including women in 1920, by the Constitution of the United States. One form of voting restriction aimed specifically at African Americans was the Grandfather clause that allowed men to register to vote only if they could. In 1915, the state amendments and clauses were ruled unconstitutional, but the poll taxes weren't eliminated until 1966. Suppressing the vote served to keep power in the hands of the Democrats. At the time, most African Americans were Republicans (the party of Abraham Lincoln) and most whites were Democrats. The clauses no doubt suppressed the vote along racial lines, but party lines were at play too. Alexandria, Virginia is part of the Washington, Arlington, Alexandria metropolitan area and with a population of about 150,000 people, this city is a historical. Thus a grandfather clause was added to allow an illiterate man to vote as long as he or his lineal ancestor (i.e., grandfather) had been a registered voter before 1867 - three years before the passage of the 15th Amendment. ![]() ![]() But those taxes and tests would also affect poor, illiterate white voters. These limits were powerful close to 30 percent of all voting-age males were illiterate, a majority of whom were poor Black men. Since the basis of race could no longer be used, the state amendments imposed poll taxes as well as literacy tests. ![]()
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