Democracy Academy: Jim Crow...
...And the Long Road Out
Political Apartheid in America
Our prior class of Democracy Academy ended with one of the darkest and most depressing cases in American history. Where the highest court in America locked into place the system of white supremacy known as Jim Crow—saying that even if the Constitution were being violated, there was nothing that could be done.
And that followed another case where the Court essentially said there was no accountability for political and racially motivated violence—even at a large scale (an actual massacre following an election).
As a result of these and other decisions, those undemocratic Southern governments piled a bevy of oppressive and self-reinforcing conditions and devices upon Black voters for generations.
Here’s a list of the the various devices—formal and informal—used to suppress democracy and voters in the South:
The oppressive cumulative effect was greater than the sum of the individual devices. And these Southern states ceased to be functioning democracies for generations:
Almost no participation by Black citizens (80,000 out of 3.6 million Black citizens—2.2%— participating).
Low turnout overall; well below the rest of the nation.
Political incentives to continue to suppress the Black vote (along with poor White voters) and attack basic rights of Black citizens through a wide array of tools and devices.
Lawlessness, including the open defiance of federal court orders and haphazard/discretionary application and enforcement of rules.
Violence and intimidation enforcing it all; lack of law enforcement and criminal justice response to protect Black voters and citizens.
And the twisted irony that those who gained power through this broken system enjoyed long tenure, seniority and outsized power in Washington.
(The parallels between Jim Crow political conditions and the worsening conditions in today’s undemocratic states (well beyond the South) are disturbing. The similarities should both scare us and spur us to action.)
A Long Road to Justice
It would take most of the 20th century for brilliant legal minds paired with a fervent civil rights movement to eradicate most (not all) of these voter suppression tools and tactics.
Let’s get started examining that long journey:
First Cracks — Long Delayed
Two of the most egregious practices locking in Jim Crow at the turn of the century were “grandfather clauses” and racially exclusive (ie. White-only) Democratic primaries. Both would lead to decades of exclusion, along with XV Amendment litigation—and a lengthy back and forth between the Supreme Court and states that refused to abide by rulings in good faith.
Both sets of cases show just how much Southern legislatures benefitted through the tactic of delay and defiance of Court rulings:
1. “Grandfather Clauses”
As with other states (including Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia), Oklahoma’s “Grandfather Clause” was anything but subtle in how it excluded Black voters from participating.
