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Voting History 101 "One of the populate conceits of American
democracy. Its always been open and available to everyone, but that's far from the truth.
Historically, the country was not a democracy but a aristocracy of voters. The only people
basically who could vote were white male property owners who were over the age of 21 years.
The fifteenth amendment in 1870 gave the equal right to vote to black males. Women, of course,
didn't get the right to vote until passage of the 19th amendment. Those who don't participate
in the political process aren't simply denied the benefits that the government has to stow
but then they become the victims of the government." "In the south especially, African Americans
often found that if they tried to vote they could lose a job, they could be killed for
the having the temerity to go out to try to register." "Southern states began to pass
a series of laws, rules, electoral procedures that were designed to prevent African Americans
from voting. They passed laws requiring that you had to pay a poll tax, where you had to
pass a literacy test." "The Voting Rights Act was terribly effective because it abolished
literacy tests in the south and other jurisdictions with long history of discrimination in voting
and it required those jurisdictions to get approval from federal officials before they
could implement any new voting practices." To Learn More Go To: www.aclu.org/voting-rights