Today is the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Since our founding in 1940 a core focus of @NAACP_LDF’s work has been devoted to challenging voter suppression schemes created to limit or deny the African American vote. 
@NAACP_LDF Historian Eric Foner has explained that opponents of ratification saw the 15th Amend as "revolutionary" & "the 'crowning' act of a Radical conspiracy to promote black equality & transform America from a confederation of states into a centralized nation." Reconstruction 1863-1877
@NAACP_LDF Southern states used poll taxes, literacy tests, the grandfather clause and other measures - including violence and lynching - for nearly 100 years after ratification to frustrate the goal of the 15th Amendment.
@NAACP_LDF A monumental shift came in 1944 when @NAACP_LDF successfully challenged the use of all-white primary elections in Texas, in Smith v. Allwright. As between Brown v. Bd. of Education and Smith v. Allwright, Marshall once said, "Hell, I don't know which case I'm proudest of."
Smith v Allwright was the beginning of the end of the all-white primary in Tx. The New York Times ran the story on the front page & called the SCOTUS decision one of “far-reaching significance.” #15thAmendat150
The clarity of the Court's decision in Smith v. Allwright should have ended all-white primaries throughout the country. But South Carolina decided to defy the decision, so Thurgood Marshall, Robert Carter & Harold Boulware were compelled to litigate there in Elmore v. Rice.
The Governor of South Carolina was clear and unequivocal in his intention to defy the Supreme Court and continue barring Blacks from voting in the primaries saying: “White supremacy will be maintained in our primaries. Let the chips fall where they may!” law.justia.com/cases/federal/…
This is 1946. After American soldiers have fought against fascism in WWII.
But Judge Waities Waring - later a key figure in Brown v Bd of Education, would tolerate no defiance in South Carolina and ordered the state to open primaries to Black voters. He had choice words for state officials: law.justia.com/cases/federal/… #15Amendat150
The 15th amendment to the Constitution protected Black men from being denied the right to vote. Women did not receive the Constitutionally-protected right to vote until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. And even then most Black women were denied the vote.
An example of how Black women, in the crosshairs of race and gender discrimination, were denied the vote comes from Texas, where a local statute gave women - white women - the right to vote in primaries in 1918 - 2 yrs before national suffrage. txwf.org/july-27-1918-w…
But until Smith v Allwright, Black men & women were denied the vote in TX primaries. Read the fascinating account of Christia Adair, who organized for women’s suffrage in TX, when she tried to vote in 1918. kut.org/post/how-texas…
And of course, it was not until after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, bought with the blood, sweat and lives of civil rights activists, that most African Americans in the South had a meaningful opportunity to vote.
.@NAACP_LDF represented the Selma marchers in 1965, and has litigated countless cases since then on behalf of African American voters demanding the right to fully participate equally in our elections.
Since then we have fought in the courts- from Alabama to Texas; Florida to Louisiana;Arkansas to Georgia & more protecting the right of Black ppl to participate fully & equally in elections - challenging vote dilution, racial gerrymanders,voter i.d. & all forms of discrimination.
