A History of the Civil Rights Movement

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A History of the Civil Rights Movement

what is and isn’t permitted under the U.S. Constitution—struck down the Civil Rights Act. The justices declared that Congress didn’t have the authority under the 14th Amendment to grant African Americans equal protection under the laws. Only state and local governments, the Supreme Court said, could do that. Meanwhile, southern states were also finding ways to get around the 15th Amendment. That amendment made it unlawful to deny a person the right to vote based on race or previous status as a slave. But poll taxes pre vented many black people from voting. Poor African Americans couldn’t afford these special taxes, which had to be paid before a person was eligi ble to vote. Southern states also imposed literacy tests as a requirement for voting. Many African Americans didn’t know how to read and write, because they had no formal education. So literacy tests effectively blocked them from voting. Of course, many poor whites couldn’t afford to pay a poll tax and couldn’t read or write either. Seven southern states would eventually solve this problem with a “grandfather clause.” This exempted any man from having to pay the poll tax or pass a literacy test if he had an ancestor who’d been eligible to vote before 1867. No blacks fell into that category, but almost all whites did. Some civil rights activists, black as well as white, challenged racial seg regation in the South. One such group, organized in Louisiana, called itself the “Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act.” A Louisiana law passed in 1890 required railroads in the state to have separate train cars for white and black passengers. On June 7, 1892, a 30 year-old shoemaker and member if the Citizens’ Committee boarded an East Louisiana Railroad train in New Orleans and took a seat in the whites only car. Homer Plessy looked white. Seven of his eight great-grandparents were white. But under the law, a single drop of “black” blood made a per son black. Plessy informed the conductor of his African-American ancestry and refused to leave the whites-only car. He was arrested. In court, Plessy’s lawyer argued that his client’s civil rights—primarily those guaranteed under the 14th Amendment—had been violated. The trial