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How did Southern states prevent African Americans from voting in the first half of the twentieth century?

In addition to using intimidation and violence, Southern states developed three basic methods to keep African Americans from voting in the early part of the twentieth century. These methods were the poll tax, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses. The poll tax required a voter to pay a fee before exercising the right to vote, keeping those, especially African Americans, without sufficient income away from the polls. Literacy tests were implemented as a prerequisite to voting, thus keeping many southern African Americans and poorly educated whites from casting their ballots. Last, most Southern states adopted a piece of legislation known as the grandfather clause, which extended voting rights only to those citizens who had been able to vote as of a certain date. This effectively barred most...

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