voting rights Archives - Zinn Education Project

What Our Students Should Know About the Struggle for the Ballot — but Won’t Learn from Their Textbooks

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

From voter ID laws to voter-roll purges, gerrymandering to poll closures to the deadly in-person voting conditions during a pandemic, the right to vote is under attack and the stakes are high. It is critical that students learn about the fight for voting rights, past and present.

Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights

Book — Non-fiction. By Lawrence Goldstone. 2020. 288 pp. This young adult book documents the long and ongoing struggle for voting rights for African Americans.

Aug. 6, 1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Convention

The MFDP held a State Convention with 2,500 people in Mississippi.

March 24, 1966: Supreme Court Officially Abolishes Last Vestige of Poll Taxes

A U.S. Supreme Court decision bans poll taxes for state and local elections.

Jan. 10, 1966: Voting Rights Activist Vernon Dahmer Murdered

Vernon Dahmer was killed when the Ku Klux Klan fired bombed his home. This was one day after Dahmer offered to pay the election poll tax for anyone who could not afford it.

The Sugar Shack | Zinn Education Project

Aug. 6, 1965: Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law.

Aug. 22, 1964: Sharecroppers Demand Delivery of Full Suffrage in the U.S.

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and the other members of the MFDP at the Democratic National Convention, questioned the nation about the lack of "one person, one vote" in the United States.

Nov. 17, 1961: Albany Movement

The Albany Movement engaged multiple civil rights organizations and students in the fight for desegregation and voting rights.

Berglund Walkout McComb MS | Zinn Education Project

Oct. 4, 1961: Burglund High School Walkout

Burglund students walked out in response to the expulsions of their classmates and the murder of Herbert Lee.

Dr. Charles Gomillion | Zinn Education Project

Nov. 14, 1960: Gomillion v. Lightfoot

SCOTUS ruled 9-0 that redrawing city boundaries in Tuskegee, Alabama to exclude African-American voters violates the 15th Amendment.

Aug. 13, 1955: Lamar Smith Murdered

Lamar Smith, 63-year-old farmer and WWI veteran, was shot dead in Brookhaven, Mississippi, for urging African Americans to vote.

May 7, 1955: Murder of Rev. George W. Lee

Rev. George W. Lee, one of the first African Americans registered to vote in Humphreys County since Reconstruction and head of the Belzoni, Mississippi NAACP, was murdered.

July 18, 1946: Murder of Maceo Snipes

WWII veteran Maceo Snipes was murdered after casting his vote in the Georgia Democratic Primary.

Nov. 2, 1920: The Ocoee Massacre

More than 50 African Americans killed in the Ocoee Massacre after going to vote in Florida.

Nov. 15, 1917: Suffragists Beaten and Tortured in the “Night of Terror”

Twenty women were subjected to beatings and torture at Occoquan Workhouse, a prison in Virginia, in what became known as the “Night of Terror.”

Nov. 1, 1890: Mississippi Constitution

Mississippi adopted a state constitution with poll tax and literacy tests to roll back the gains of the Reconstruction era.

F.M.B. "Marsh" Cook | ZInn Education Project

July 23, 1890: F. M. B. “Marsh” Cook Killed

F. M. B. “Marsh” Cook was killed for standing up against the white supremacist 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention.

Sept. 4, 1875: Clinton, Mississippi Massacre

Nearly 50 African-Americans were killed by white mobs during the Clinton Riot.

The Vicksburg Massacre | Zinn Education Project

Dec. 7, 1874: Vicksburg Massacre

Whites attacked and killed many Black citizens who had organized for a Black sheriff to remain in office during the Vicksburg Massacre.

March 1, 1874: White League Formed

A group of Confederate veterans in Louisiana formed the White League with the goal of using terrorism to undermine Reconstruction.

March 30, 1870: Fifteenth Amendment

The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was formally adopted.

Paul Cuffee | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Feb. 10, 1780: Paul Cuffee and Other Free Blacks Petition for the Right to Vote

Paul Cuffee and other free Blacks petitioned the Massachusetts government to give African and Native Americans the right to vote.

Oct. 25, 1868: St. Bernard Parish Massacre

The St. Bernard Parish (Louisiana) massacre of African Americans was carried out by white men to terrorize the recently emancipated voters.

May 25, 1865: Black Virginians Cast Freedom Ballots

On election day in Norfolk, African Americans tested their right to vote and when denied, cast their own "freedom ballots."