1890

Mississippi’s constitution builds barriers to Black voting

Mississippi

Mississippi adopted voting requirements including a poll tax and a literacy or constitutional understanding test. Officials used these measures to exclude Black voters and entrench white political control.

Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.

Context / qualification

The provisions operated through discriminatory administration as well as their wording, and also excluded many poor white people. Constitutional guarantees of equal citizenship had not prevented this state campaign.

Sources

• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 11, pp. 291–292; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
• Museum of Mississippi History: The World Remade ↗

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