The history of voting in America is extremely daunting. Suffrage was not initially established for all citizens of this country and was instead allocated to individual subpopulations based on race, gender and economic status gradually received the right to vote.
In the year of 1776, when the Constitution was signed and the United States of America became its own country, not even all white men could vote. Back then, you had to be a land owner and that restricted the amount of voters to only 6% of the country’s population! In fact, it was not until 1856 that North Carolina became the last state to remove the property ownership requirement.
Of course for women and minorities, it took even longer to receive the right to vote. Before the end of the Civil War, African Americans weren’t even technically American citizens. They couldn’t vote, own land, and they were seen as only 3/5ths a person in the eyes of the national government. The passage of the 14th and 15th amendment granted citizenship and the legal right to vote, respectively, to the former enslaved. Women had to wait longer for suffrage. Decades of marching and protesting led to the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920 and it became illegal to deny citizens the right to vote based on sex.
Surprisingly, Native Americans had to wait even longer for suffrage. In the most ironic decision ever, Congress granted citizenship to all Native Americans in 1924. Yes, the descendants of the people who originally found this land weren’t considered citizens until almost 150 years after the country’s inception. The Asian population in this country couldn’t even participate in elections in the first half of the 20th century. It wasn’t until the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 that all the restrictions on Asian citizenship were lifted and they technically received voting rights.
But even with the legal right to vote, participation was limited because of the intense amount of voter suppression. Literacy tests, voting fees, voter intimidation and other discriminatory policies kept minority groups away from the polls. Years and years of civil rights activism, including marches, protests, sit-ins and iconic speeches, finally resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed the policies that kept many people from voting. The citizens of this country, especially the members of these disenfranchised groups, have to remember how hard the generations before us had to fight to get their voices heard.
Suffrage should no longer be taken for granted because now it is more important than ever to use our right to vote. The stakes have never been higher! This current administration has severed relations within this country, drawing a clear line in the sand.
This election we are fighting for the issues of police reform, healthcare coverage, economic recovery, environmental policies, the end of this pandemic and, most importantly, the conservation of our country’s democracy! The current administration has publicly stated a refusal to peaceful transfer of power.
Can we talk about how scary that sounds? No other election in the history of this country has been against facism and autocratic leadership like this 2020 presidential election.
Unsure about how you are going to vote this year? Visit www.vote.org. Here you can check your registration status, register to vote, request an absentee ballot, find a polling location and even sign up for election reminders! The deadline to register to vote differs in most states so do your best to stay informed about your own local guidelines.
Lastly, as a citizen in this country, you have the right to vote so if anyone attempts to stop you, call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-687-8683.
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