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blacks in Daytona Beach. This proposal was amajor issue between the two candidates who were running for the office of mayor. One candidate was violently opposed to the school, whereas the other candidate promised not only to build the school but to construct better streets, lighting, and sewers in the black section of town. Bethune canvassed the black women in Daytona Beach as the election drew near, telling them to register to vote if they had not already done so and urging them to go to the polls on election day. Their votes were crucial, she said, because the upcoming election would directly affect the education of blacks in the community. VOTING IN THE SOUTH Although the U.S. Constitution granted all American citizens the right to vote, many of the nation’s southern states sought to limit the participation of blacks in the electoral process. In certain areas, only blacks who owned property or who could read and write to the satisfaction of the registrar (who was usually white) were eligible to vote. In some instances, blacks had to provide character references fromwhite sponsors before they were allowed to vote. These references were mainly given when a black voter and his sponsor favored the same candidate. Blacks were also excluded from voting in primaries, which meant they had little say in choosing the candidates for an election. The most notorious device for preventing blacks from voting, however, was the poll tax , a voting fee of $1 or $2 that often put political representation beyond the reach of southern farmers, who earned as little as $100 a year. Enacted in 1885, Florida’s poll tax was not repealed until 1945. Even when blacks were able to emerge from this maze of voting restrictions, intimidation or violence was often a problem on election day. Organizations such as the Constitutional Guards and White Brotherhood in North Carolina and the Men of Justice in Alabama led to the establishment of the white supremacist group known as the Ku Klux Klan. Founded as a social club at Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866, the Klan

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