After the murder of three voting rights organizers in 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, led by Fannie Lou Hamer, tried to unseat the all-white Mississippi delegation at the National Democratic convention later that year.
Although unsuccessful, this demonstration brought public attention to the problem on national television, and eventually led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which abolished poll taxes and literacy tests.
Related Posts
-
What were poll taxes and How were poll taxes used to stop African Americans from voting?
Poll taxes were taxes that only blacks were required to pay if they wanted to vote. The rules on paying these taxes were deliberately confusing and unfair. Poll taxes were used throughout the…
-
How was Marcus Garvey able to convince African Americans to join his civil rights movement?
By the early 1920s, some African Americans on the lower social and economic levels felt that organizations such as the NAACP were only for those African Americans on the upper levels. There also…
-
How did African Americans learn nonviolent resistance during the civil rights movement in the 1950s?
Nonviolence required compassion, commitment, courage, faith, and discipline. A group called the Fellowship of Reconciliation printed an illustrated pamphlet entitled Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Montgomery Story and distributed it throughout the…
-
How did African Americans learn of the latest developments in the civil rights movement?
During the 1930s and 1940s, many local black newspapers had begun to publish national editions. By 1955 there were more than 200 black magazines and newspapers being published in the United States. Newspapers…
-
What Is the Largest Minority Group In the United States and What Percentage Are African Americans?
African Americans make up the largest minority group in the United States, but Hispanics are not far behind. In 2000, African Americans made up 12.8 percent of the U.S. population, while Hispanics represented…
-
Why are Hispanics in the United States called “Hispanic Americans” but not “Spanish Americans”?
Many Hispanics informally call themselves "Spanish," but the term can lead to confusion. Strictly speaking, a Spanish American person is an American whose family comes from Spain. While some Hispanic Americans can claim…
