Voting Rights: From the Civil War to the Present
October 1, 2020
During this seminar Close Up’s, Joe Geraghty, discusses ‘Voting Rights: From the Civil War to the Present’ with Dr. Frank Smith and Dawn Chitty from the African American Civil War Museum.
Since the Constitution only gave the right vote to white land-owning males, American history is filled with the struggle to expand the franchise to all Americans. After a bloody Civil War where the country lost nearly 700,000 people, the 15th Amendment gave the right to vote to African American men, but not women. All women would have to wait 50 more years for the vote. And, in reality, because of poll taxes, and various forms of intimidation most African Americans in the South did vote have voting rights protections until the 1965 voting rights law. During this session, we will explore the stories behind the struggle for voting rights in the U.S. and the attempts to undermine the right to vote.
