1600's Voting Rights

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The 1600’s in America was a time of great encounters.   This was a time period where American ancestors would begin to think of themselves as Americans or different.  Many different kinds of people met for the first time.  Some formed life long bonds, some misunderstood each other differences, but most importantly people began to think of themselves differently, more freely, more open and courageous.  American people from the beginning had a voice that was Native American, English, French, African and Spanish.  The voice of the many was often heard, but only the few were listening. 

1607: Jamestown, Virginia became the first successful English Settlement in the Americas.  As soon as they landed they formed a small counsel to set all rules for the Jamestown Virginia Colony.  Those men who were selected by each other to serve on their counsel would set the tone for all voting rights in America for the next 300 years, they were wealthy white men.  The only people who could serve on the counsel (government) or even vote had to be white and owner of significant amounts of land. 

1619: The first representative assembly in English America convened in Jamestown’s church, forming two houses or groups of representatives one was for plantation owners and the other for corporations.  This representative assembly also established a trend in American voting for the next 300 years and that was the first shipment of slaves arrived in English America, which they had no rights to anything in America, not property, not naming themselves, not even religion. 

1600’s marked a time period of White Male rule allowing only white males who owned property to vote. White women, black people, Native Americans, and other nationalities that came to America where not allowed to vote or serve in government. 

1700's Voting Rights

1700’s marked a time period of change and identity! American Colonies began to develop an independent culture from England as well as anger.  Colonists felt a since of real freedom.  While far away from England with the Atlantic Ocean separating them many American Colonists decided it was time to separate from England and start a new country.  These men who formed the country of America are known as the founding fathers.  These founding fathers did look or sound like the people they ruled over and set on a path democracy, but what they did have was an untapped love for freedom and equality for all.   

1730’s: Many colonies (British owned) allowed colonists to vote, but only for local representatives and taxes.  Because colonies were ruled by England they were not allowed to vote for any English representatives in England.  The famous phrase “No Taxation without representation was created”.

1776: The 13 English Colonies sent representative from each colony to meet and design a new free country.  These representatives were all very wealthy white men who either owned large corporations or plantations.  They decided that they no longer wanted to pay taxes to England and Declared Independence July 4, 1776 forming what will forever be known at The United States of America. 

1787: The same representatives that met for the Declaration of Independence met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to create and vote on the rules of the newly formed country by creating the United States Constitution.  It took one year for white male property owners to vote in each colony to make the US Constitution in effect.

1792: New Hampshire began fight to extend voting rights to all citizens by allowing non-white property owners to vote for colonial mayors and governors.

1800's Voting Rights

1800’s marked a time period in America of revolution and solidifying the true American idea of equality. African Americans were freed from a rugged system of slavery and given a slight beacon of light and elected the first African American representatives to public office.  Native Americans were also given a path to citizenship and voting rights from a long history of terror from American settlers.  All white men received the right to vote after the emancipation proclamation freeing slaves to compete with black American voters. 

1856: North Carolina became the second state to get rid of property requirements for white males, allowing all white males the right to vote. 

1866: The first Civil Rights Act granted citizenship to all native-born American, but not the right to vote.  This law did not include as American: Black people, Mexican people, Asians, Native Americans and Indians from India.

1866: the 14^th Amendment to the federal Constitution was passed guaranteeing citizenship to the former slaves and changing them from 3/5ths human being to equal human beings.

1869: Congress passes the fifteenth Amendment giving African American men the equal rights to vote.  It also marked the beginning of “Black Codes”, laws designed to keep black men and people in general from voting.

1870: Hiram Revels is the first African American elected to the US Senate and Joseph Hayne Rainey becomes the first African American member of the US House of Representatives.  Jasper J. Wright is elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Proving that African Americans have power when they vote and participate in American Government. 

1882: Congress Passes the Chinese Exclusion Act denying citizenship and voting rights to Chinese Americans.

1887: Congress passes the Dawes General Allotment Act giving citizenship only to those Native Americans who give up their tribal affiliation.

1890: The Indian Naturalization Act grants citizenship to Native Americans by an application process.

1896: The Grandfather Clause adopted by Louisiana Legislators disfranchises African American voters.  The percent of registered black voters drops from 44.8 percent in 1896 to 4 percent in 1900.

1900'S VOTING RIGHTS

1900’s Voting rights came with blood, sweat, tears and ultimately triumph.  African American received protection under the law and the abolishment or at least the acknowledgment of the ill practices of voter repression in the South and many other states throughout the country.  All women received the right to vote and a general sense of shared power and true democracy was established, but, this did not come about without hard work, dedication and love for country and the belief in freedom.    

1915: The US Supreme Court ruled that the grandfather clause was unconstitutional.

1920: Native Americans in North Dakota who had abandoned their tribal ties secure the right to vote.

1920: The 19^th Amendment, adopted by Congress on June 4, 1919, is finally ratified by the states and becomes national law, giving women the right to vote.

1924: The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 declares all non-citizen Indian Born within the US to the be citizens, giving them the right to vote.

1940: Only 3% of eligible African Americans in the South are registered to vote.

1943: In a major civil rights victory, the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed, giving Chinese immigrants the right to citizenship and the right to vote.

1946: Filipinos are granted the right to become US Citizens. 

1947: Only 125,000 African Americans in Georgia, or 18.8 of the population, are registered to vote.

1952: The McCarra-Walter Act gives first generation Japanese Americans the right to become citizens.

1957: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957 giving the US Attorney General the authority to bring lawsuits on behalf of African Americans denied the right to vote.

1964: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, and gender in voting, public places, the workplace and schools.

1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, permanently barring direct barriers to political participation by racial and ethnic minorities, prohibiting any election practice that denies the right to vote on account of race, and requiring jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in voting to get federal approval of changes in their election laws before they can take effect.

1967: African American voter registration jumps from 6.7% in Mississippi before passage of the voting rights act, to 59.8% in 1967.

1971: The 26th Amendment gives 18 year olds the right to vote.

1972: Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta become the first African Americans elected to Congress from the South since The Reconstruction.