THE BATTLE FOR THE BLACK BALLOT

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other tricks for years were used by Southern States to disenfranchise black voters.  Starting near the turn of the century in the late 1890s states began to create all white party primaries.  Since there was no alternative to the Democratic Party nominee in the general election in most of the South, for all practical purposes, the Democratic Party Primary was the election.

Like many other Southern States, the Texas Democratic Party limited participation in its primary to white voters.  This little book, The Battle for the Black Ballot: Smith v. Allwright and the Defeat of the Texas All-White Primary, details the legal battle to abolish the all white primary.

Thurgood Marshall

Led by Thurgood Marshall, NAACP lawyers convinced the Supreme Court of the United States in 1944 that the all white Texas Democratic Primary stripped blacks of any meaningful right to vote.  This was a long hard road.  The book details the legal history which led up the decision and the litigation which followed the decision as Southern States continued to resist.  This is excellent reading.  Five out of five gavels.