Negro Suffrage: The Constitutional Point of View

Abstract

The Constitution of the United States as amended provides that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” These words are plain. Everybody understands them. They mean, and every one knows that they mean, that, from the constitutional point of view, one question relative to the suffrage is no longer open. That question is the very one about which I am asked to write. From the political point of view, from the historical point of view, from the social point of view, from the economic point of view, and from the ethical point of view, there is much to be said about negro suffrage. For centuries yet to come there may be much to be said. From the constitutional point of view, accurately defined, there has been nothing to say since March 30, 1870. On that day the Secretary of State of the United States proclaimed that the Fifteenth Amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-nine out of the then thirty-seven States. The apparent assent of a number of these legislatures, perhaps, had not been a real assent. It might have been given under duress. Still, it had been given. The men who assumed to be the legislatures of other of these States may have had little moral and a very doubtful legal right to speak for them.

Say our name (and say it right)! Extending Walton et al. on the evolution of race in political science scholarship

“… 2. Walton et al (1995) classified articles in Political Science Quarterly ( PSQ ) (see Bugbee, 1898a, b; Curtin, 1968; McClendon, 1933; Morris, 1960; Phillips, 1905, 1907) and the American Political Science Review ( APSR ) (e.g., Meier and England, 1984; Rose, 1906; Stephenson, 1906, 1909) that defended racial segregation as “Race Relations Politics”. Examples of “African American Politics” articles include Lewis (1933), Robinson (1982), and Smith (1981) in the PSQ , and Allen et al (1989), Bobo and Gilliam (1990), and Gosnell (1934) in the APSR ; these articles “addressed the issue of African-American political empowerment in a positive manner” (Walton et al, 1995: 158). …”

Understanding Law as a Democratic Institution Through US Constitutional Development

“…It may come as a surprise to contemporary scholars to hear that the early pages of the American Political Science Review , the discipline's flagship journal, which began publication in 1906, frequently featured scholarly articles concerning normative constitutional law and doctrine (Rose 1906; Garner 1907; Powell 1907). Through the 1920s and 1930s, constitutional law was a prominent part of US political science.…”

Struggling to be Noticed: The Civil Rights Movement as an Academic Agenda Setter

“…Scholars were acutely aware of racial tensions in the United States, particularly in the South (Myrdal 1944). It was believed, however, that America's racial dilemma could only be resolved by increasing the education levels of Whites in Myrdal's formulation or even more extreme non-political interventions (see Rose 1906 for instance). Thus, scholars within the field of political science stopped talking about race because there was little left to say from this viewpoint.…”