ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that race continues to be an impediment on the path toward political equality in the United States. The Waite Court (1874–1888) chipped away at the foundations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments’ promise of political equality. In 1901, Alabama ratified a constitution that was designed to disenfranchise black voters. The provisions provided that persons who registered before January 1, 1903, who were almost all white, remained voters for life unless disqualified by certain crimes. The difficulties which people cannot overcome are two, and the first is this: the plaintiff alleges that the whole registration scheme of the Alabama constitution is a fraud upon the Constitution of the United States, and asks people to declare it void. Southern disenfranchisement provisions were challenged in federal court. In 1964, the ratification of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment outlawed poll taxes as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections.
