PR216
Voting Restrictions in the 13 Southern States Report
1944
In 1944 a group of southern editors and writers documented cases of voter suppression in southern states. They took this step because, in the presidential election of 1944, only 28 percent of potential voters in the South participated, as opposed to 62 percent in the rest of the country. Their findings, compiled in Voting Restrictions in the 13 Southern States, drew attention to the methods used to deprive African Americans of the vote.
The pamphlet explains poll times, compensation, voting requirements, absentee voting, voter turnout from previous elections, and the expected voter turnout of African Americans. The reports on North Carolina and Mississippi featured in the pamphlet demonstrate different aspects of voter suppression. In North Carolina, although the state constitution says, “All men are created equal,” a prominent Black community member in Black Mountain was told that “if he registered, he would lose his job and would have to leave the town. As a consequence, no Negroes voted in the community.” However, registrars were paid for each person who registered in North Carolina, providing an incentive to allow more people to participate. In Mississippi, the state with the lowest income per capita, all voters had to pay a two-dollar poll tax and present their receipt in order to vote. Literacy tests restricted many voters and placed a great deal of authority in the hands of registrars, who could discriminate against voters they did not deem literate.
The pamphlet explains poll times, compensation, voting requirements, absentee voting, voter turnout from previous elections, and the expected voter turnout of African Americans. The reports on North Carolina and Mississippi featured in the pamphlet demonstrate different aspects of voter suppression. In North Carolina, although the state constitution says, “All men are created equal,” a prominent Black community member in Black Mountain was told that “if he registered, he would lose his job and would have to leave the town. As a consequence, no Negroes voted in the community.” However, registrars were paid for each person who registered in North Carolina, providing an incentive to allow more people to participate. In Mississippi, the state with the lowest income per capita, all voters had to pay a two-dollar poll tax and present their receipt in order to vote. Literacy tests restricted many voters and placed a great deal of authority in the hands of registrars, who could discriminate against voters they did not deem literate.
