American History- Literacy Test, Poll tax, Gerrymandering

Big Idea: After Reconstruction, old political and social systems came back, and racial discrimination became institutionalized through laws and practices

Literacy tests

• A test people had to pass to vote

• Used to prevent many African Americans from voting

• GRANDFATHER CLAUSE: exempted some white voters from literacy test if their ancestors could vote before a certain time

Poll tax

• A fee you needed to pay to vote

• Used unfairly against low- income people and African Americans

Jim Crow Laws

• Laws that enforced racial segregation

Examples:

• Separate public facilities

• limited voting rights

• banned interracial marriage

• limited civil rights for African Americans

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Supreme court case that upheld racial segregation

• idea of “separate but equal”

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• Ku Klux klan

• Increased violence against African Americans

Gerrymandering

• Manipulating voting district boundaries to give one group an advantage

• Controlled by state legislature