White primaries

White primaries (English for "white primaries " ) were primary elections that took place in the southern United States and the non-white voters and candidates forbade participation. This practice prevented 1890-1944 de facto, that blacks could exercise their vote and stand for election. The United States Supreme Court held this practice for decades to be constitutional and changed his opinion until 1944.

Establishment and significance of white primaries

Around the turn of the century from the 19th to the 20th century almost all political offices in the southern states of representatives of the Democratic Party were taken. At this time the Republicans were still more progressive than the Democrats, who stood for a reactionary and racist policies ( only in the course of the 20th century, the political orientation was reversed, on the one hand with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies on the other hand, with Lyndon B. Johnson, who showed solidarity with the African-American civil rights movement ). The Republican Party played in the southern states such a significant role, and the Democratic Party was so dominant that the choice decision de facto already fell in the primaries of the party, the following Endwahlkampf was then just a mere formality. An exclusion from the primaries was thus synonymous with the exclusion of the entire election process.

The parliaments of the Southern states passed laws that are political parties as " private" defined organizations. The Democratic Party was then not a political organization but a pure private, no longer affected by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and joined African Americans from their primaries from. Only after the Supreme Court in its decision of April 3, 1944 (Smith v. Allwright ) ( 321 U.S. 649 ), the regulation of the "White Primaries " was classified as clearly unconstitutional because, due to the / the weight / importance of Primaries already this pre- election would have to be seen as an integral part of the ( entire ) electoral process and for this reason black Americans are expected to be shall not also excluded African-Americans was at all possible to participate in elections.

Legal disputes

The American Civil Liberties Union had sued in the 1920s against the white primaries. The decision of the Supreme Court 1994, the Texas law that forbade blacks to choose the basis for his decision.

After Smith v. Allwright

After the decision Smith v. Allwright be registered tens of thousands of African Americans in electoral lists. However, authorities and lawmakers found other ways of discrimination: The amount of tax or tests of reading and writing skills paid were used as a criterion for exclusion, to keep blacks from exercising the right to vote.