HISTORY 7B Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: Voting Rights Act Of 1965, Grandfather Clause, Fifteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution
Identity Politics
- Obama’s victory in the Ohio caucus against Clinton
- A black candidate won, in an overwhelmingly white state
- Showed that a black candidate could be viable at a national level
- Issue that brought Trump to the center of attention
- Obama couldn’t be president because he wasn’t born in the United States
- 1958: more than half of Americans told pollsters that they would never vote for a black
candidate
- 2007: fallen to 4% of Americans who still believed this
- Either more people were willing to vote for black candidates, or they knew they
weren’t supposed to say they weren’t
- Identity politics
- Republicans tend to use -- mean it as a bad thing
● I. Law
- Two laws that crucially diversified politics
- Thinking back to Reconstruction
- Black legislators of the reconstruction era
- Disenfranchisement didn’t happen all at once
- Oscar DePriest (South side of Chicago)
- 1971: only 13 African Americans in national congress
- Urban districts
- Where african americans were concentrated
- 1965: 10 women in Congress
- Today there are 20 females in Congress
- Identity politics -- the Republican claim
- African Americans and women vote Democratic because of their identity not
because they agree with their views
○ A. Voting Rights Act - 1965
■ Enforce the 15th Amendment
■ Banned certain discriminatory practices
● Poll taxes, grandfather clauses, intimidation of voters, etc
■ Said federal government would oversee voter registration in counties that
had previously used illegal tactics and in districts with less than 50% voter
turnout rate
■ Redistricting
● Constitution requires that a census be taken every 10 years to
reproportion the seats in congress for each state
● Federal government takes the census, states redraw the districts
● Justice department had to ‘pre-clear’ any states that had previous
problems drawing district lines
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Document Summary
Obama"s victory in the ohio caucus against clinton. A black candidate won, in an overwhelmingly white state. Showed that a black candidate could be viable at a national level. Issue that brought trump to the center of attention. Obama couldn"t be president because he wasn"t born in the united states. 1958: more than half of americans told pollsters that they would never vote for a black candidate. 2007: fallen to 4% of americans who still believed this. Either more people were willing to vote for black candidates, or they knew they weren"t supposed to say they weren"t. Republicans tend to use -- mean it as a bad thing. 1971: only 13 african americans in national congress. Today there are 20 females in congress. African americans and women vote democratic because of their identity not because they agree with their views. Poll taxes, grandfather clauses, intimidation of voters, etc.
