African-American Studies: Black Suffrage in the US

 

Racism
Black Suffrage simply refers to Blacks’ right to play an active role in voting exercise. For the purpose of this study, this paper observes black suffrage as it applied in the United States. The very matter of voting rights in the U.S. has been a contentious issue over the years. When America was founded, only white men who passed certain qualifications were allowed to vote. In those times, blacks were viewed as descendants of ancient immigrants who had moved to the Western from other parts of the world and for that reason were excluded from common social rights enjoyed by the Americans, such as the right to participate in voting.

The move to hinder blacks from voting was clearly manifested in the better part of the nineteenth century where numerous incidents of intimidation such as shootings and beating were observed from various parts of the country against those who dared to assert their right to vote1. Such events would over the time contribute to the intensification of the American division as the battle between the supporters and the opponents of the black suffrage continued. As far as these differences were concerned, blacks were the ones who suffered the biggest blow here, since they were disadvantaged by the issues of race and skin color among other social and cultural aspects. Based on recent observations, it is clear that the issue of black suffrage has always kept Americans divided than united.

Black suffrage has been a long journey which has called for a lot of sacrifice and dedication from black Americans and civil activists. For many years, activists have been in the frontline to pursue voting rights for the African-Americans or simply the blacks. This search for the voting freedom dates back to the Antebellum period which had begun in 1789, after the Revolutionary War, and which would continue up to 1860, just as the Civil War was about to start. In the course of the colonial period, most colonies were against black suffrage and would detest it completely. This was a fate affecting both slaves and free black Americans.