A 100 Per Cent Opinion! [editorial cartoon by Fred O. Seibel]
Editorial cartoon by Fred O. Seibel for <em>The Knickerbocker Press.</em> Mounted and identified as no. 929. <br /><br />The cartoon was created in April 1920 after duly-elected assemblymen were expelled from the New York State Assembly. The Speaker of the Senate at the time was Republican Thaddeus C. Sweet. The socialist lawmakers were August Claessens and Louis Waldman of Manhattan; Charles Solomon of Brooklyn; and Samuel Orr and Samuel A. DeWitt of the Bronx. <br /><br />Image Description: <br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_C._Sweet" target="_blank" title="Thaddeus C. Sweet - Wikipedia article" rel="noreferrer noopener">Thaddeus C. Sweet</a> sits at a desk covered in papers. <br /><br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes" target="_blank" title="Who was Charles E. Hughes?" rel="noreferrer noopener">Charles E. Hughes</a> addresses Speaker Sweet saying, "I deeply regret the action of the Assembly in suspending five members of the Socialist Party who were duly elected. Are Socialists, unconvicted of crime, to be denied the ballot? If Socialists are permitted to vote, are they not permitted to vote for their own candidates?"<br /><br />In the lower left corner "Moses Crow" says, "The people still believe in the ballot box!"
M 23, Box 3, cartoon no. 929, <a target="_blank" title="finding aid" href="https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=vcu-cab/vircu00068.xml" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frederick Otto Seibel papers, 1882-1968</a>. James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries.
1920
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
NO KNOWN COPYRIGHT<br /><br />The organization that has made the Item available reasonably believes that the Item is not restricted by copyright or related rights, but a conclusive determination could not be made. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.<br /><br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/" target="_blank" title="Rights Statement" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/</a> <br /><br />Please acknowledge VCU Libraries as a source.
Learn more: <br /><br />Confessore, Nicholas (2009 October 21) <a href="https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/when-the-assembly-expelled-socialists-for-disloyalty/" target="_blank" title="New York Times archives" rel="noreferrer noopener">When the Assembly Expelled Socialists For Disloyalty</a> <em>The New York Times. </em>
Equal Suffrage and the Negro Vote [broadside]
This broadside was issued by the Equal Suffrage League in about 1916. <br /><br />Southern suffragists were forced to respond to anti-suffrage groups who argued that if African American women gained the right to vote, white supremacy would be threatened. Although some prominent suffragists claimed that their response was borne only out of expedience, and not principle, they nonetheless employed Jim Crow arguments by emphasizing the power of the literacy test and the poll tax.
Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
<a href="http://librarycatalog.virginiahistory.org/final/Portal/Default.aspx?component=AAAAIY&record=7491bc35-de43-4df5-bc24-c73a55b94ac4" target="_blank" title="Broadsides 1916:1" rel="noreferrer noopener">Broadside Collection, Call Number 1916:1</a>, Library of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
c. 1916
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES<br />The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. <br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/</a><br /><br />Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
Learn more: <br /><a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/75" target="_blank" title="The Negro Vote in the South." rel="noreferrer noopener">The Negro Vote in the South. A Southern Woman's Viewpoint</a>, Social Welfare History Image Portal
High school seniors embark by bus to voter registration, Atlanta, Ga., 1959
Photograph of students from <a href="https://www.atlantapublicschools.us/Page/52771" target="_blank" title="Luther Judson Price High School" rel="noreferrer noopener">Luther Judson Price High School</a> of Atlanta, Ga., prepare to register to vote. <br /><br />Caption attached to photograph: <br />"18 year old high school students of Atlanta, Georgia as they embark by bus to register in the 1959 Voter Registration Campaign of the All Citizens Registration Committee headed by Mr. Jesse Hill, Jr., Actuary of the Atlanta Life Insurance Co."<br /><br />Handwritten on back of photograph: <br />"R.E. Cureton, Principal of Price High School, Atlanta, Ga., confers with members of the Senior Class as they embark by bus to register in the 1959 Voter-Registration Campaign of the All Citizens Registration Committee headed by <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/jesse-hill-1927-2012" target="_blank" title="Jesse Hill (1927-2012), New Georgia Encyclopedi" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jesse Hill, Jr.</a> Actuary of the <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/atlanta-life-insurance-company" target="_blank" title="Atlanta Life Insurance Co. history, New Georgia Encyclopedia" rel="noreferrer noopener">Atlanta Life Insurance Co.</a> All six Atlanta High Schools participated in this program and registered 18 year old students (eligible to vote under Georgia law) nearly 100%."
M 296, Box 2, <a href="http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=oai/vcu/repositories/5/resources/577.oai_ead.xml" target="_blank" title="John Mitchell Brooks Collection finding aid" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Mitchell Brooks Collection of NAACP Files 1957-1978</a>, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
1959
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
COPYRIGHT UNDETERMINED <br />The copyright and related rights status of this Item has been reviewed by the organization that has made the Item available, but the organization was unable to make a conclusive determination as to the copyright status of the Item. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. <br /><br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/</a>
Learn more: <br />Holmes, R. A. (2005). <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/black-suffrage-twentieth-century" target="_blank" title="Black suffrage in the twentieth century" rel="noreferrer noopener">Black suffrage in the twentieth century</a>. <em>New Georgia Encyclopedia</em> <br />Myers, B. (2006). <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/jesse-hill-1927-2012" target="_blank" title="Jesse Hill" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jesse Hill (1927-2012)</a>. <em>New Georgia Encyclopedia <br /></em><a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/uncategorized/voting-rights-act-of-1965/" target="_blank" title="Voting Rights Act of 1965, introduction" rel="noreferrer noopener">Voting Rights Act of 1965: An Introduction</a>, Social Welfare History Project <br /><a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/the-voting-rights-act-of-1965/" target="_blank" title="Voting Rights Act of 1965" rel="noreferrer noopener">Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>, Social Welfare History Project
Interracial News Service, vol. 10, no. 1, January 1939
A news digest published by the Department of Race Relations, Federal Council of Churches, New York, NY. <br /><br />The Federal Council of Churches was an ecumenical association of Protestant denominations in the United States founded in Philadelphia in 1908. It merged with other ecumenical bodies in 1950 to form the present day National Council of Churches. <br /><br />Masthead: "Gleanings from press releases and other sources to inform busy but sincere people of some of the things affecting the lives of racial minorities. Let's do away with walls ! 'We are all one in Christ Jesus.'<br />The Material in the News Service is given for information and is not to be construed as declarations of official attitudes or policies of the Department of Race Relations or the Federal Council of Churches." <br /><br />Articles and topics in this issue include:<br /><br />p. 1 "Editor Fears Results of Educational Equality" discusses a statement made by Virginius Dabney, editor of the Richmond <em>Times-Dispatch</em> that admitting African Americans to institutions of higher education would be harmful to racial relations in Virginia. <br /><br />p. 2 "Birmingham is Scene of Liberal Conference" about the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, held Nov. 20-23, 1938. <br /><br />"Negroes Denied Ballot Indians Vote Freely" a case from Clinton, NC<br /><br />p. 3 "Truck Driver Lynched for Asking Favor" regarding the death of Wilder McGowan in Mississippi<br /><br />"White Women of South Condemn Lynch Evil" the Mississippi Council of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching condemned McGowan's lunching. The article relates, "One-fourth of Wiggins [Mississippi] took part in the lynching party. 'It was very orderly,' contends Sheriff S. C. Hinton." <br /><br />"Negroes and Anti-Semitism"<br />"What About Lynching?"<br />"Negroes Pray for Jews"<br />"Shall We Hate the Jews?" <br /><br />p.4 "The German press has retaliated to American protests as quoted by the N.Y <em>Herald-Tribune</em> for Nov. 16th and 20th... 'The "Voelkischer Beobachter" said that 'the Americans, who continue to treat their Negroes as second class citizens and in whose country lynch justice is, so to speak, good manners, are the least warranted to take upon themselves the role of moral sympathizers'"<br /><br />"F.D.R. Told of Ban on Skilled Negro Workers" <br /><br />"Steps Toward Solving the Negro Problem" discusses the increasing poverty, incarceration, and tuberculosis of African Americans in Washington, DC. <br /><br />"Working Condition, Wages Large Factors in Life Expectancy" regarding the disparity between the life expectancy of blacks and whites as reported by the Surgeon General of the United States.
<a href="https://vcu-alma-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=VCU_ALMA21375204090001101&context=L&vid=VCUL&search_scope=all_scope&tab=all&lang=en_US" target="_blank" title="catalog entry" rel="noreferrer noopener">E 185.5.I68</a>, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Libraries, VCU Libraries
1939 January
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
The organization that has made the Item available reasonably believes that the Item is not restricted by copyright or related rights, but a conclusive determination could not be made. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. <br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/</a>
Learn more: <br /><em><a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/browse?tags=Southern+Frontier" target="_blank" title="Issues of The Southern Frontier" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Southern Frontier</a>,</em> Social Welfare History Image Portal <br /><a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/civil-war-reconstruction/jim-crow-laws-andracial-segregation/" target="_blank" title="Jim Crow Laws" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation</a>, Social Welfare History Project <br /><a href="http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1593" target="_blank" title="Southern Conference for Human Welfare" rel="noreferrer noopener">Southern Conference for Human Welfare</a>, Encyclopedia of Alabama <br /><br />Annotate a <a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/files/original/418882cb0452b3ef52e9f817dadf8ccb.pdf" target="_blank" title="PDF of Interracial News Service v.10, n.1" rel="noreferrer noopener">PDF of this image</a> with <a href="https://web.hypothes.is/" target="_blank" title="What is hypothes.is?" rel="noreferrer noopener">hypothes.is</a>
Literacy and the Right to Vote. CLSA Reports: Information Bulletin, No. 2, May 15, 1962.
This information bulletin is a publication of the Commission on Law and Social Action of the <a href="https://ajcongress.org/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="American Jewish Congress website">American Jewish Congress</a>. The four-page document, written by CLSA director <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/07/obituaries/leo-pfeffer-83-lawyer-on-staff-of-the-american-jewish-congress.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="New York Times obituary of Leo Pfeffer ">Leo Pfeffer</a>, discusses the topic of literacy tests and voter registration, particularly as a tool of discrimination against Black and immigrant voting. Pfeffer also considers literacy in languages other than English. <br /><br />This American Jewish Congress bulletin is from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Religious Freedom and Public Affairs Project and is part of a resource files on discrimination in voting. It discusses the use of literacy tests as a means to prevent voting. <br /><br /><br />Excerpts: <br />p.1 Today, however there is no widespread demand that literacy tests for voters be completely abolished. What is in issue is the use of such tests to discriminate against members of minority ethnic groups. The major victims in the South are the Negroes and in New York Puerto Ricans who are literate only in Spanish and Jews literate only in Yiddish. <br /><br />It is no accident that literacy tests should be so popular in the South. Their origin is to be found in the search by the Southern states to find ways to defeat the objective of the 15th Amendment which sought to secure the Negro's right to vote. Among other (e.g., poll tax, white promaries, etc.) the literacy test was hit upon as such a device. While this did effectively bar the polls to many Negroes, it had the disadvantage from the Southerner's viewpoint of also disenfranchising many whites who likewise were illiterate. To get around this, the "grandfather clause" was invented. This was a provision in the statute which exempted from the requirement of literacy anyone who was a descendant of a person who voted before 1866, in effect meaning any white person. <br /><br />p.2 Typical of the administration of literacy tests in the South is the explanation given by a Louisiana registrar to an investigator of the Civil Right Commission for her practice of asking for constitutional interpretations only from Negro applicants: "Usually, I find that the white people are more intelligent along those lines and I very seldom ask them; but some of the colored people -- I can determine by the way they fill out their card that they are not intelligent in these respects." <br /><br />To meet this problem the Civil Rights Commission unanimously recommended that any state law requirement of literacy as a prerequisite to the right to vote shall be deemed satisfied if the applicant shows that he completed six years of instruction in elementary school. A number of measures along this line have been introduced in Congress. <br /><br />p.3 Southern spokesmen argue that these bills are unconstitutional because they interfere with states rights. They contend that if a Negro is discriminated against his only relief is to sue in the courts. <br />However, both the 14th and 15th Amendments specifically provide that Congress shall have the power to enforce their provisions by appropriate legislation....Enactment by Congress of the proposal recommended by the Civil Rights Commission would show that Congress realizes that it too shares responsibility in the struggle for equality. <br /><br /><br />p. 4 There is a valid reason to deny the right to vote to persons who have not yet reached the age of maturity, or to those whose limited mental capacities render them unable to handle their own affairs. There is no valid reason to deny the ballot to a person who is competent to exercise intelligent judgment in respect to the issues of the day and the candidates for public office simply because he acquired his knowledge in one rather than another language.
Commission on Law and Social Action of the American Jewish Congress
<span><a href="https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/11/resources/2434" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="finding aid">National Conference of Christians and Jews records (SW0092)</a>. </span><a href="https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll453:11061/p16022coll453:11057?child_index=19&query=&sidebar_page=7" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll453:11061?q%3D%2522Voting%2Brights%2522&source=gmail&ust=1596631787427000&usg=AFQjCNE-srMJQt7FYy6BeuKGvSaecsHldQ" rel="noopener" title="University of Minnesota Libraries UMedia digital collections">Special Projects. Religious Freedom and Public Affairs Project. Discrimination in Voting. (Box 18, Folder 19)</a> Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries
1962 May 15
Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES<br /><br />The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. <br /><br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/</a>
State Capitation Tax receipts [poll tax receipts]
Virginia State Capitation Tax receipts from the various years. <br /><br />Note: Names and addresses have been removed from these receipts. <br /><p>Poll taxes<span> </span>have a long and contentious history in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Payment of the tax first became a requirement for voting in 1876, as part of an effort to make it more difficult for African Americans and poor whites to participate in elections. Beginning in 1904, Virginians could not register to vote without presenting proof of having paid the poll tax for each of the three years preceding an election.</p>
<p>In March of 1966, in the case of<span> </span><a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/383/663/" target="_blank" title="Text of this case" rel="noreferrer noopener"><i>Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections</i></a>, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the poll tax was unconstitutional. In 1970, the Virginia Constitution omitted authorization of the General Assembly to make payment of a poll tax a prerequisite for voting.</p>
Commonwealth of Virginia
M 68, Box 11, <a href="http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=oai/vcu/repositories/5/resources/273.oai_ead.xml" target="_blank" title="Finding aid" rel="noreferrer noopener">Edward H. Peeples, Jr. Papers, n.d., 1910, 1943-1994</a>. Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
NO KNOWN COPYRIGHT<br /><br />The organization that has made the Item available reasonably believes that the Item is not restricted by copyright or related rights, but a conclusive determination could not be made. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. <br /><br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/</a>
Learn more: <br />Tarter, B. <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/poll_tax" target="_blank" title="Poll Tax in Virginia" rel="noreferrer noopener">Poll Tax</a>. <em>Encyclopedia Virginia <br /></em><a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/browse?tags=poll+tax" target="_blank" title="materials related to poll taxes" rel="noreferrer noopener">Poll tax</a>, Social Welfare History Image Portal <br /><a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/issues/suffrage-south-poll-tax/" target="_blank" title="Suffrage in the South: The Poll Tax (1940)" rel="noreferrer noopener">Suffrage in the South: The Poll Tax (1940)</a>, Social Welfare History Project <br /><a href="https://progressive.org/dispatches/nurturing-roots-90for90-black-political-power/" target="_blank" title="Nurturing the Roots: 90for90 and Black Political Power" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nurturing the Roots: 90for90 and Black Political Power.</a> The Progressive, July 15, 2016.
Virginia State Board of Elections Bulletin No. 29, May 22, 1958 [blank sheet voter registration]
Bulletin No. 29 addressed To ALL REGISTRARS OF VIRGINIA. Stamped in red "Important Read Carefully." <br /><br />Excerpts: <br /><br />The 1958 session of the General Assembly made several changes in the Election Laws of Virginia stressing the duties of the registrars and the procedure to be followed by all the registrars throughout the State in registering applicants who are eligible to have their names placed on the registration books in order that a uniform system will be stictly adherred to. <br /><br />If each registrar will follow the procedure whih is outlined below, step by step, in registering voters, we believe he will be fully meeting the requirements of the new law. <br /><br />1. Every person applying for registration should be furnished one of the Information Sheets, Form No. 1, which we have printed and are furnishing each registrar, containing the pertinenet provisions of Chapter 576 of the Acts of the 1958 General Assembly and Section 20 of the Constitution of Virginia. <br /><br />2. The registrar shall furnish the applicant a sheet of paper containing no written or printed data; in other words, just a blank sheet of paper for the applicant to supply in his own handwriting the information required by Section 20 of the Constitution and Section 24-68 of the Code, which is as follows: <br /><br />1. Name of applicant. <br />2. Age of applicant. <br />3. Date of applicant's birth. <br />4. Place of applicant's birth. <br />5. Residence of applicant at the time application is made. <br />6. Residence of applicant for one year next preceding the making of the application. <br />7. Occupation of applicant at the time application is made. <br />8. Occupation of applicant for one year next preceding the making of the application. <br />9. Whether applicant has previously voted. <br />10. If applicant has previously voted, the State, County and precinct in which applicant last voted. <br /><br />While making his application for registration, which must be done in the presence of the registrar, the applicant shall not be permitted to refer to any pamphlet, booklet or other memorandum, printed or written, nor to discuss with any person any matter concerning the requirements necessary in order to register other than the provisions of Section 20 of the Constitution and Section 24-68 of the Code which we have printed for his use on Form No. 1. If an applicant makes application in his or her own handwriting, and without aid, suggestion or memorandum, other than the right to refer to the pertinent provisions of the Code and the Constitution, then such applicant has satisfied the requirements of the law, so far as a written application is required.
Commonwealth of Virginia, State Board of Elections
M 306 Box 2, folder 6, <a href="https://archives.library.vcu.edu/repositories/5/resources/145" target="_blank" title="finding aid" rel="noreferrer noopener">Richmond Crusade for Voters collection</a>, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU LIbraries
1958 May 22
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES <br /><br />The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. <br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/</a><br /><br />Acknowledgement of the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Learn more: <br /><a href="https://progressive.org/dispatches/nurturing-roots-90for90-black-political-power/" target="_blank" title="Nurturing the Roots: 90for90 and Black Political Power" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nurturing the Roots: 90for90 and Black Political Power.</a> The Progressive, July 15, 2016.
Voting Rights Act...the first months
Within the first six weeks after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, staff attorneys from the Commission on Civil Rights visited 32 Southern counties and parishes to study the implementation of the legislation. This document is their report, transmitted to the President, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives in November 1965. <br /><br />The Commission found widespread compliance, but also a need for further action. Their "Findings and Recommendations," along with the section titled, "Problems in Registration" are presented here. <br /><br />Read the report's <a href="https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll391:4298/p16022coll391:4185?child_index=9&query=&sidebar_page=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="read the report's history of the Voting Rights Act of 1965">Chapter 1: History of the Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>. <br /><br />Excerpts: <br />p.34 Problems in Registration<br /><br />Some country registrars in Mississippi and Alabama have violated the new law by refusing to register illiterates....<br /><br />Delay has created a problem in Alabama and South Carolina, principally because these States have a restricted number of registration days. <br /><br />p. 35 In some counties in North Carolina, registrars conduct all but three days of registration in their own homes or places of business. Social and psychological barriers are likely to deter Negroes from seeking out a registrar in his exclusively white neighborhood.... <br /><br />Racial violence related to civil rights activities is another factor which has limited applications in some counties with examiners. The killing of seminarian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Daniels" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="biographical information on Jonathan Daniels">Jonathan Daniels</a> in Lowndes Country, Alabama, on August 20 and the acquittal of his killer on September 30 appear to have been the single most important factor in reducing Negro applications in that county. It is symbolic of conditions there that a pick-up truck with a rifle visibly displayed has been parked daily immediately outside the examiner's office since the opening of the office. Registration workers in the country have reported increasing threats against their lives and continued efforts to intimidate resident Negro leaders.<br /><br />------<br /><br />This booklet on the Voting Rights Act was part of a resource file on civil rights and voting in the files of the National Federation of Settlements. The Federation was active in community organizing for social justice, voting, and civil rights. The <a href="https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll391:4298/p16022coll391:4176" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="complete document and transcript">entire document along with a transcript</a> is available via the University of Minnesota Libraries, Social Welfare History Archives.
United States Commission on Civil Rights
<a href="https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/11/resources/2445" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="finding aid">National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers records</a> (<a href="https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll391:4298/p16022coll391:4176" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="view this document">Box 169, Folder 3</a>), Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries
1965
Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES<br /><br />The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. <br /><br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/</a>
Voting Rights and Legal Wrongs. A Commentary on S. 1564, the proposed "Voting Rights Act of 1965..."
This booklet was distributed by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government (VCCG) in opposition to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Commission began in 1958 and existed until the late 1960s. <br /><br />Led by David J. Mays, a prominent lawyer and advisor to Virginia’s commission on the response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, it advocated nationally for states’ rights and conservatism, and eventually distributed over 2 million published pamphlets, brochures and speeches.<br /><br />Excerpts: <br /><br />FOREWORD<br /><br />During the first eight weeks of 1965, demonstrations of increasing size and intensity in Selma, Ala., and later in Montgomery, attracted nationwide attention to the efforts of Alabama Negroes to secure their right to vote. The demonstrations reached a political climax on the evening of March 15, when the President asked a joint session of the Congress for the immediate adoption of a "Voting Rights Act of 1965." Remarkably, members of the United States Supreme Court, in their judical robes, sat in the front row applauding. <br /><br />Three days later, on March 18, identical bills were introduced in the House (HR 6400) and in the Senate (S. 1564) to carry out the President's recommendations. <br /><br />The Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government believes fervently in the right to vote....At the same time, the Commission adheres just as fervently to a conviction that the power to fix qualifications for voting, uniformly applied to all persons, is a power plainly reserved to the States under Article I of the Constitution.... <br /><br />The proposed "Voting Rights Act of 1965," in the Commission's view, transcends the authority vested in Congress. Its key provisions are triggered not by discrimination on account of race or color, but by arbitrarily defined statistical phenomena....<br /><br />In our view, the President is proposing to deal unconstitutionally with unconstitutional acts, thus piling a large subversion on a small one. He is proposing to go far beyond the limits of discrimination "on account of" race or color, in order to spread upon the statute books a harsh and punitive measure of general application, more drastic than any voting legislation proposed since Reconstruction days. The bill would grievously undermine our federal system; it would open the door to the obliteration of all State powers in the field of State and local elections.<br /><br />We do not oppose the President's aim. Surely the indefensible conditions that provoked the Alabama demonstrations must be remedied. But we are convinced the job can be done by a carefully drawn bill, strictly confined to denials and abridgments by reason of race or color. Such a bill would have this Commission's support...."<br /><br />James J. Kilpatrick, Chairman, Committee on Publications<br />Richmond, April, 1965.<br /> <br /><br /><a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/browse?tags=Virginia+Commission+on+Constitutional+Government" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Other VCCG publications">Other VCCG publications</a> in the Image Portal
<a href="http://librarycatalog.virginiahistory.org/final/Portal/Default.aspx?component=AAAAIY&amp;record=76257a97-9be4-4971-b1b5-351eec5dcce9" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Search for this item in the Library Catalog">General collection, Call Number JK1861.V82 V6</a>, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
NO COPYRIGHT – UNITED STATES <br /><br />The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. <br /><br /><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="RightsStatements.org">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/</a> <br /><br />Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
Learn more: <br /><br /><a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/exhibits/show/controlling-the-vote/gallery" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Discovery Set: Controlling the Vote">Controlling the Vote -- Rights. Registration. Representation.</a> Social Welfare History Image Portal<br /><a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/uncategorized/voting-rights-act-of-1965/" target="_blank" title="Introduction to the Voting Rights Act" rel="noreferrer noopener">Voting Rights Act of 1965. An Introduction</a>. <em>Social Welfare History Project </em> <br /><br />Hayter, J. M. (2017). <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1p0vjw7" target="_blank" title="The Dream is lost." rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The dream is lost. Voting rights and the politics of race in Richmond, Virginia</em>.</a> Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky <br /><br />Moeser, J. V. & Dennis, R. M. (2020). <a href="https://doi.org/10.21974/02y5-eq41" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Open Access edition 2020"><em>The politics of annexation. Oligarchic power in a southern city.</em></a> Open Access Edition. Digital publisher: VCU Libraries. Original (1982) edition Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company <br /><br />Hershman, J. H. Jr. <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Massive_Resistance" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Massive Resistance">Massive Resistance</a>. (2011, June 29). <em>Encyclopedia Virginia</em>
Woman Citizen, October 30, 1920
Woman Citizen published just days before the first presidential election in which women could vote. <br /><br />Shown here: <br /><br />Campaign advertisement for the Democratic party ticket for the 1920 presidential election (James R. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt) "Let's Have Done With Wiggle and Wobble" <br /><br />News item entitled, "Virginia Women May Control Election" which says, "Predictions are being made that the registration of women in Virginia is so heavy that the will control the election. Especially keen have been the activities of the women of Richmond, where more than ten thousand new voters have been registered." <br /><br />The story also notes that "The University of Virginia is providing Valuable citizenship training for the women of the state, sending Miss Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, director of its department of Citizenship Education, to communities willing to pay travelling expenses and entertainment."<br /><br />New item entitled, "Attempt to Prevent Voting" describes <span>how a member of the Tampa city administration attempted to mislead a new woman voter in 1920. The article notes, "Being a cautious lady, the woman voter investigated…” </span><em></em>
<a href="http://search.library.vcu.edu/VCU:all_scope:VCU_ALMA21463133110001101" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Special Collections and Archives</a><span>, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries</span>
1920 October 20
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
This item is in the public domain. Acknowledgement of the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Associated material: <br /><br /><a href="http://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/95" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Gist of the League of Nations: Questions Answered for the Woman Voter</a>