History of Voting

After the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865, African Americans were granted freedom and full citizenship. During reconstruction, many African American men exercised their right to vote and run for office. This resulted in several Black men being elected to Congress and Senate. Subsequently, the 14th and 15th amendments were passed granting citizenship and voting rights to any American citizen regardless of color. However, these changes increase the amount of violence toward Black Americans at the hands of white supremacist groups. Southern states began to put stipulations on voting rights including literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes and other practices to disenfranchise Black voters. While African Americans had the right to vote legally in southern states it was next to impossible. It wasn’t until Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that African American men and women could freely exercise their right to vote.

Special Collections and University Archives

The Alexander family papers consist of materials related to the NAACP activity of Kelly M. Alexander, Sr., Fred Alexander, and Kelly M. Alexander, Jr. These papers cover between 1950-1985. Kelly Alexander Sr. served as the president of the North Carolina State Conference of BRanches, NAACP and as a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors.

Charles McLean Papers - Charles McLean worked with the NAACP as the director of Special Assignments for the voter registration program. In 1951, McLean became field director of the North Carolina Conference of Branches, consisting of 35 local branches. His work involved building up local NAACP branches, work for desegregation, and supporting voter education and voter registration campaigns aimed at increasing representation of African-Americans in North Carolina

Books from General Collections

A thrilling and incisive examination of the post-Reconstruction era struggle for and suppression of African American voting rights in the United States. Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction era raised a new question to those in power in the US: Should African Americans, so many of them former slaves, be granted the right to vote? In a bitter partisan fight over the legislature and Constitution, the answer eventually became yes, though only after two constitutional amendments, two Reconstruction Acts, two Civil Rights Acts, three Enforcement Acts, the impeachment of a president, and an army of occupation. Yet, even that was not enough to ensure that African American voices would be heard, or their lives protected. White supremacists loudly and intentionally prevented black Americans from voting -- and they were willing to kill to do so. In this vivid portrait of the systematic suppression of the African American vote, critically acclaimed author Lawrence Goldstone traces the injustices of the post-Reconstruction era through the eyes of incredible individuals, both heroic and barbaric, and examines the legal cases that made the Supreme Court a partner of white supremacists in the rise of Jim Crow. Though this is a story of America's past, Goldstone brilliantly draws direct links to today's creeping threats to suffrage in this important and, alas, timely book.

African American Women and the Vote, 1837-1965 by Ann Gordon (Editor); Bettye Collier-Thomas; John Bracey

Written by leading scholars of African American and women's history, the essays in this volume seek to reconceptualize the political history of black women in the United States by placing them "at the center of our thinking." The book explores how slavery, racial discrimination, and gender shaped the goals that African American women set for themselves, their families, and their race and looks at the political tools at their disposal. By identifying key turning points for black women, the essays create a new chronology and a new paradigm for historical analysis. The chronology begins in 1837 with the interracial meeting of antislavery women in New York City and concludes with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The contributors focus on specific examples of women pursuing a dual ambition: to gain full civil and political rights and to improve the social conditions of African Americans. Together, the essays challenge us to rethink common generalizations that govern much of our historical thinking about the experience of African American women. Contributors include Bettina Aptheker, Elsa Barkley Brown, Willi Coleman, Gerald R. Gill, Ann D. Gordon, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Cynthia Neverdon-Morton, Martha Prescod Norman, Janice Sumler-Edmond, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, and Bettye Collier-Thomas.

An answer to the assault on voting rights--crucial reading in light of the 2020 presidential election The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is considered one of the most effective pieces of legislation the United States has ever passed. It enfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters, particularly in the American South, and drew attention to the problem of voter suppression. Yet in recent years there has been a continuous assault on access to the ballot box in the form of stricter voter ID requirements, meritless claims of rigged elections, and baseless accusations of voter fraud. In the past these efforts were aimed at eliminating African American voters from the rolls, and today, new laws seek to eliminate voters of color, the poor, and the elderly, groups that historically vote for the Democratic Party. Uncounted examines the phenomenon of disenfranchisement through the lens of history, race, law, and the democratic process. Gilda R. Daniels, who served as Deputy Chief in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and more than two decades of voting rights experience, argues that voter suppression works in cycles, constantly adapting and finding new ways to hinder access for an exponentially growing minority population. She warns that a premeditated strategy of restrictive laws and deceptive practices has taken root and is eroding the very basis of American democracy--the right to vote!