Grandfather Clauses and Their Impact on Voting Rights

Grandfather Clauses and Their Impact on Voting Rights Grandfather clauses were statutes that seven Southern states implemented in the 1890s and early 1900s to prevent African Americans from voting. The statutes allowed any person who had been granted the right to vote before 1867 to continue voting without needing to take literacy tests, own property, or pay poll taxes. The name â€Å"grandfather clause† comes from the fact that the statute also applied to the descendants of anyone who had been granted the right to vote before 1867. Since most African Americans were enslaved prior to the 1860s and did not have the right to vote, grandfather clauses prevented them from voting even after they had won their freedom from slavery. How the Grandfather Clause Disenfranchised Voters The 15th Amendment of the Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870. This amendment stated that the â€Å"right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.† In theory, this amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. However, black Americans had the right to vote in theory only. The Grandfather clause stripped them of their right to vote by requiring them to pay taxes, take literacy tests or constitutional quizzes, and overcome other barriers simply to cast a ballot. White Americans, on the other hand, could vote get around these requirements if they or their relatives had already had the right to vote prior to 1867- in other words, they were grandfathered in by the clause. Southern states such as Louisiana, the first to institute the statutes, enacted grandfather clauses even though they knew these statutes violated the U.S. Constitution, so they put a time limit on them in hopes that they could register white voters and disenfranchise black voters before the courts overturned the laws. Lawsuits can take years, and Southern lawmakers knew that most African Americans could not afford to file lawsuits related to grandfather clauses. Grandfather clauses weren’t just about racism. They were also about limiting the political power of African Americans, most of whom were loyal Republicans because of Abraham Lincoln. Most Southerners at the time were Democrats, later known as Dixiecrats, who had opposed Lincoln and the abolition of slavery. But grandfather clauses weren’t limited to Southern states and didn’t just target Black Americans. Northeast states like Massachusetts and Connecticut required voters to take literacy tests because they wanted to keep immigrants in the region from voting, since these newcomers tended to back Democrats during a time when the Northeast leaned Republican. Some of the South’s grandfather clauses may have even been based on a Massachusetts statute. The Supreme Court Weighs In: Guinn v. United States Thanks to the NAACP, the civil rights group established in 1909, Oklahomas grandfather clause faced a challenge in court. The organization urged a lawyer to fight the state’s grandfather clause, implemented in 1910. Oklahoma’s grandfather clause stated the following: â€Å"No person shall be registered as an elector of this state or be allowed to vote in any election held herein, unless he be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma; but no person who was, on January 1, 1866, or any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under any form of government, or who at that time resided in some foreign nation, and no lineal descendant of such person, shall be denied the right to register and vote because of his inability to so read and write sections of such Constitution.† The clause gave white voters an unfair advantage, since the grandfathers of black voters had been enslaved prior to 1866 and were, thus, barred from voting. Moreover, enslaved African Americans were typically forbidden to read, and illiteracy remained a problem (both in the white and black communities) well after slavery was abolished. The U.S. Supreme Court decided unanimously in the 1915 case Guinn v. United States that grandfather clauses in Oklahoma and Maryland violated the constitutional rights of African Americans. That’s because the 15th Amendment declared that U.S. citizens should have equal voting rights. The Supreme Court’s ruling meant that grandfather clauses in states such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia were also overturned. Despite the high court’s finding that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional, Oklahoma and other states continued to pass laws that made it impossible for African Americans to vote. The Oklahoma Legislature, for example, responded to the Supreme Court ruling by passing a new law that automatically registered the voters who’d been on the rolls when the grandfather clause was in effect. Anyone else, on the other hand, had only between April 30 and May 11, 1916, to sign up to vote or they would lose their voting rights forever. That Oklahoma law remained in effect until 1939 when the Supreme Court overturned it in Lane v. Wilson, finding that it infringed on the rights of voters outlined in the Constitution. Still, black voters throughout the South faced huge barriers when they tried to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Even if African Americans managed to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax, or complete other hurdles, they could be punished for voting in other ways. After slavery, large numbers of blacks in the South worked for white farm owners as tenant farmers or sharecroppers in exchange for a small cut of the profits from the crops grown. They also tended to live on the land they farmed, so voting as a sharecropper could mean not only losing one’s job but also being forced out of one’s home if the landowner opposed black suffrage. In addition to potentially losing their employment and housing if they voted, African Americans who engaged in this civic duty could find themselves targets of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. These groups terrorized black communities with night rides during which they would burn crosses on lawns, set homes alight, or force their way into black households to intimidate, brutalize, or lynch their targets. But courageous blacks exercised their right to vote, even if meant losing everything, including their lives. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated many of the barriers that black voters in the South encountered, such as poll taxes and literacy tests. The act also led to the federal government overseeing voter registration. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is credited with finally making the 15th Amendment a reality. Sources â€Å"Along the Color Line: Political,†Ã‚  The Crisis, volume 1, n. 1, November 11, 1910.Brenc, Willie. The Grandfather Clause (1898-1915). BlackPast.org. Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"The Racial History Of The ‘Grandfather Clause.’† NPR 22 October, 2013.Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Basic Books, 2009. United States; Killian, Johnny H.; Costello, George; Thomas, Kenneth R. The Constitution of the United States of America:  Analysis and Interpretation : Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 28, 2002. Government Printing Office, 2004.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Psychological Contract

Advantages and Disadvantages of Psychological Contract Outline and critically evaluate the concept of the ‘psychological contract’. Why is an understanding of the psychological contract considered to be important to the management of the contemporary employment relationship? The concept of psychological contract Introductions There are two kinds of contracts which are the formal, written economic contract as well as the euqally important, informal and unwritten psychological contract. It’s all about how people think they should be treated. Both involve rights, obligations and expectations on the part of employer and the employee. The key feature of the word ‘contracts’ is exchange in term of reward or the effort that employee puts in etc. For instance, the level of effort which employee puts in or employee’s perception can be affected by how they are being treated by the organization. A quite large research literature on the psychological contract has been produced in only a short time with the ke y players being, in the United States, Denise Rousseau (Rousseau, 1995, 2001), Schein (1980) etc. Although much of the interest in the psychological contract is recent, its roots go back a long time, it having originally been discussed by Argyris (1960). History The concept of a â€Å"psychological contract† was first coined by Argyris (1960); it refers to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship as well as represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions and informal obligations between an employer and an employee. Expanding the concept of the contract was Schein (1980). According to Schien it may be defined as an†Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦unwritten set of expectations operating at all times between every member of an organization and the various managers and others in that organization.† More recently Rousseau and her co- workers (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994) have suggested a more specific definition of the psychological contract. According to them, the psychological contract is characterised not only by expectations, but by promissory and reciprocal obligations. When these obligations are broken, they produce more emotional and extreme reactions than weaker expectations produce feelings of disappointment. Broken obligations lead to feelings of anger and reassessment of the individual’s relationships with the organization. Content The term psychology is derived from the Greek, meaning ‘mind, spirit or soul’ and contract is that the expectations concern non- tangible, psychological issues. There are significant elements of all definitions of the psychological contract include: 1.3.1 integration of beliefs, values, expectations and aspirations of employer and employee, the beliefs of implicit promises and obligations are included, the level to which these are perceived to be met or violated and the level of trust within the relationship. 1.3.2 All the expectations must not be made explicit. It could be the implici t deal between employers and employees. Fairness and good faith are involved. 1.3.3 An significant feacture of the concept is it can be repeatedly re-negotiated, changing with an individual’s, and an organisation’s, expectations, and in shifting economic and social contexts. Yet, a snapshot of one point in time was only provided thus capturing only one stage in this social process. 1.3.4 Because it is based on individual perceptions individuals in the same organisation or job may perceive different psychological contracts, which will, in turn, influence the ways in which they perceive organisational events for instance redundancies or developing or modifying a flexitime system.

The End of History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The End of History - Essay Example What we may be witnessing in not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.In the controversial 1989 essay titled "The End of History", Francis Fukuyama attempted to give Western capitalism's victory over communism a Hegelian interpretation. He argued that the end of history has eliminated all but one intellectual option for the future evolution of the planet. Liberal Democracy and the 'American way of life' were hailed as the only rational coherent system of values and practices; everything else that happened in the past was only leading up to this new Enlightenment and triumph of reason, in a teleological sense of inevitability. In a way, neither is the advent of man the end of evolution, nor is the widespread prevalence of liberal democracy that we witness in our day the "end" of history. Yet they represent effective points of resolution. If we were to assert that man is the pinnacle of natural evolution, it would be factually very incorrect as man modern man evolved barely 100-120 thousand years ago, and evolution takes place in a geological time scale spanning millions of years. Though it may be difficult for us to conceive any life form beyond human beings, evolution is simply a naturally phenomenon that cannot be stopped and has not stopped with humans. Humans may only be representing a transitional life form, or dolphins may evolve to be more intelligent that humans ever were, in a million years or so. We also would like to think American-type liberal democracy as being the pinnacle of evolution of political organisation of society, but we could be wrong. In the course of evolution, there occurred a decisive encounter between Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens for over ten thousand years, in which Homo sapiens sapiens finally emerged as the survivor to assert supremacy over the planet, about 28,000 years ago. Eerily echoing this epic evolutionary clash between the two rival human species, there raged a monumental battle in the twentieth century between communism and democracy during the years of the Cold War, in which the forces of democracy finally emerged victorious and asserted supremacy over the planet. However, there is nothing intrinsically final about both these phenomena. Man has of course no rival on the planet now, and liberal democracy too, even with all its defects and shortcomings, appears the sole viable alternative for the present and the future of human society. However, if we were to claim that man is the culmination and the end of natural evolution, we could be accused of brazen anthropocentrism. Similarly, if we were to claim that democracy is the culmination, and more than that, the end itself, of ideological evolution, we could perhaps be accused of "American-centrism". Yet the fact remains that, considered on a rational basis, emergence of man represents an evolution of consciousness that offers a satisfactory resolution to the six hundred million years of natural evolution, despite his war-like nature and other selfish, brutish tendencies. In this sense, enlightened liberal democracy too, notwithstanding its myriad inadequacies, offers a satisfactory resolution to the ten thousand years of evolution of human society. If Neanderthals took over the Cro-Magnon man (that is, us), of if Hitler won the Second World War, or if the Soviet Union somehow succeeded in annihilating the United States in the Cold War, would we have been at the end of history too Certainly, Neanderthals were very robust, they had already been flourishing for about two hundred thousand years when the Cro-Magnon man arrived on the ice age European scene and made his presence felt. There were also many times in the Second World War, where the German forces were on the ascendency, and in fact Hitler

Why is the subject of migration in this period c.300-1087 so Essay

Why is the subject of migration in this period c.300-1087 so controversial - Essay Example ontinued to be the common language of England (non-Danelaw) until after the Norman Conquest of 1066 when, under the influence of the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the Norman ruling class, it changed into Middle English roughly between 1150-1500. (Stenton, 54) But the central paradox of the Anglo- Saxon migration stays firm within the unavailability of substantial evidences. Till date there are considerable debates as to the extent of Anglo-Saxon migration from the fourth to the sixth centuries. This because we are unable to finds enough evidences regarding this migration and whatever is available proves to be unworthy as a sustainable source to prove within the academic consensus. As a result no single model of Anglo- Saxon migration can be taken into account academically. The initial interpretation of the Anglo- Saxon migration during the fourth to the sixth centuries suggested that the Anglo-Saxon tribes arrived in Britain in large numbers and settled down instantly. This process was instigated by mass genocide and effective displacement of the local communities of the ‘Britons’ (as depicted in Latin Texts) from the eastern and southern parts of the island. It is also believed that a minority of the Romano-British fled to Brittany and Galicia in northern Spain. Probably during the early sixth-century or late fifth century monk Gildas narrated the defeat of the British in the hand of the English and stated that this defeat was the result of a punishment from God in his writing De Excidio Britanniae. (Gildas, 77) A similar narrative appeared in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, written in the early eighth century, which drew heavily on Gildas. This era of cataclysm was focussed by later Anglo-Saxon and British (Welsh) documents on the basic differences between the English and the Welsh. But many historians doubt the story - believing many or most Britons survived - but evidence to back up their account has always been hard to find. This is

Augustan Poetic Tradition Essay -- The Outlaw Seamus Heaney Poetry Ess

Augustan Poetic Tradition "I do not in fact see how poetry can survive as a category of human consciousness if it does not put poetic considerations first—expressive considerations, that is, based upon its own genetic laws which spring into operation at the moment of lyric conception." —Seamus Heaney, "The Indefatigable Hoof-taps" (1988) Seamus Heaney, the 1995 Nobel laureate, is one of the most widely read and celebrated poets now writing in English. He is also one of the most traditional. Over a decade ago, Ronald Tamplin summed up Heaney's achievement and his relation to the literary tradition in a judgment that remains sound today: "In many ways he is not an innovative poet. He has not recast radically the habitual language of poetry. He has not challenged our preconceptions with a new poetic form nor has he led us into the recognition of new rhythms and metres. Instead he has worked with what was to hand and brought to it great powers of expression and art as well as a significant subject matter" (Tamplin 1). At the same time, Sidney Burris was making a similar point: "Readers of his verse must continually remind themselves that Heaney, perhaps more so than most other contemporary poets, is a deeply literary poet, one whose consolations often lie in the invigorating strains of the poetic tradition itself" (Burri s ix). For Heaney, those strains are primarily formal. "I rhyme / To see myself, to set the darkness echoing," Heaney writes in "Personal Helicon," the final poem in his first collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966). Although rhyme here signifies, more generally, writing in verse, whether rhymed or free, Heaney is certainly drawn to rhyme and closed forms. He is especially partial to rhymed tr... ... Wilson. "The Poetry of Seamus Heaney." Critical Quarterly 16 (Spring 1974): 35-48. Fussell, Paul. Samuel Johnson and the Life of Writing. New York: W. W. Norton, 1971. Girard, Rene. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. Heaney, Seamus. Poems 1965 - 1975. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980. ____________. Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968 - 1978. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980. O'Neill, Charles L. "Violence and the Sacred in Seamus Heaney's North." In Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. Edited by Catharine Malloy and Phyllis Carey. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996: 91-105. Parker, Michael. Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. Tamplin, Ronald. Seamus Heaney. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1989.

Indian Festivals Essay

India is a country of colours and festivals. It is said that there are seven days in a week but nine festivals. They mark the grand, gay and happy occasions in the life of Indian people. These are celebrated with gay abandon. Great preparations are made well in advance to observe festivals. These are the occasions of family gatherings, exchange of greetings and sweets, joy, praying, fasting and feasting. People visit temples, holy places, worship gods and invoke their favors. Festivals come round the year and add colour, joy, happiness, variety and spice to life. Man is a celebrating being. He celebrates birth, marriage and even death. In India there are a number of festivals, fairs, and days of celebration. Celebration and festivity is in Indian blood and psyche. These have close links with our religion, myths, changes of season, harvesting and anal events. Most of the Indian festivals follow lunar religious calendar. Festivals in India are of great social, cultural and national value. They help people to forge greater and stronger national and cultural ties with one another. Festivals are a great factor to unite such a large population into one country and nation. Their mass recreational appeal is irresistible. The people are in their best clothes on this occasion. Even the poor get new clothes sewn for festivals. Their enthusiasm and preparations are seen to be believed on festive occasions. There are various communities in India. They have their respective festivals but they all participate in one another’s festivities with much delight and jest. Holy, Deepavali, Janmashtami, Dessert, Christmas, Id, Muharram, Mew Year are the main festivals celebrated on a vast scale. Besides, there are scores of other local and regional festivals. 15th August and 26th January are the national days of celebration and festivity. Holy, the most colorful festival marks the advent of spring and ripening of crops. It is also the most boisterous occasion. During the night bonfires are there, and then the next day there are a lot of singing, dancing and throwing of colours on one another. Sometimes the reveling is too much which turns into hooliganism, mud throwing and singing of obscene songs. However, it is an occasion when people of all classes mix-up with one another freely and enjoy singing and exchange of greetings and sweets. It is a special occasion in Gould, Matura and Barman, the places closely associated with the life of Lord Krishna and his consort Radar. Dessert is another great festival of India. It is celebrated to mark the victory of good over evil. It was on the Vijayadashmi that Rama defeated the ten-headed demon King Ravenna. During these days of festivity, the epic Ramayana is presented in dance-drama form on the stages all over the country. It is popularly called Camilla. On the final day of the festivities, the huge effigies of Ravenna, and his brother Kumbhkarna and son Meghan are burnt and there are fire-works. It is followed by Bharat Mila, an occasion of family reunion. In Mysore, a great royal and colorful procession is taken out on this occasion. In Kula also a special festival is celebrated on this day. In West Bengal it is observed as Durga Puja festival. Next comes the Deepavali, the festival of lights and fireworks. At night, earthen lamps and candles are lit to illumine the dark night of Amanas, the night before the new moon. Greetings and sweets are exchanged and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth is worshipped. The businessmen close their old accounts and open the new ones. It is believed that Rama was crowned on this day after his triumphant return to Aloha from Lanka, foemen people also indulge in gambling on this occasion. Houses are cleaned, repaired and white-washed, and people wear new and colorful clothes on this day. 26th January is a major national Day when spectacular parade is held in Delhi along the Rajah. In state capitals also the day is celebrated with much enthusiasm and joy. Folk-dances are performed, processions taken out, parades held, and the National Flag is hoisted on this day. Then in the night there are fire-works and illumination of government buildings. It was on this day that our constitution came into being and India became a Republic. It is the most celebrated occasion for the Muslims in India. It comes after the month long fasting and praying of Raman. The Muslims visit mosques and Ideas to offer their prayers in their new and {east clothes. They embrace one another, exchange greetings and sweets, give alms to the poor and enjoy feasts. On Christmas, the Christians celebrate the event with much joy, jest and festivity, and exchange greetings and sweets. Special prayers and Teases are held in the churches on the occasion. New Year is celebrated with much jest, joy and enthusiasm by the people of all communities. Batsakis, Rachis, Roth Yare, Panama, Oman, Ganesha festival are some of the other important festivals of India.

A Note On Traceability Single Directional, Bi Directional

Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 3 ABSTRACT 4 1. INTRODUCTION: 4 2. NEED 5 3. RTTTA QUALITY GATES: 5 3.1. Testability 5 3.1.1. Need 5 3.1.2. How? 5 3.1.3. Workflow 7 3.1.4. Benefits 8 3.2. Traceability 8 3.2.1. Need 9 3.2.2. How? 9 3.2.3. Workflow 9 3.2.4. Benefits 10 3.3. RTTA Tool 10 3.4. RTTA RACI 10 3.5. RTTA Case Study 11 3.6. Conclusion 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Through the years, we have heard a lot about traceability single directional, bi directional. With the changing time with shift towards left, there is a business and industry need to develop strong solution accelerators which will help in identifying defects early in the lifecycle, how can testers be more connected with business due to the growing need to become business testers. How do we develop that connect until and unless we as testers don’t find out ways to inform business the testability of requirements? This paper exactly provides synopsis on the various gates and checks to perform to establish testability of artifacts like requirements, design and how it connects with traceability. It also touches the aspect left shift which is the place to survive in the present industry. It is an experience based paper with lot of facts of how we conceptualized, developed, executed, adopted across various big programs and we would like you all to use it and share the similar experience too. The paper also highlights the various metrics and measurements which help in calculating the score of testability andShow MoreRelatedCloud Computing Security67046 Words   |  269 Pages................................................... 4 Letter from the Editors .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 An Editorial Note on Risk ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 Section I. Cloud Architecture ........................................................Read MoreOnline Banking42019 Words   |  169 Pagesprocess it has thrown open issues which have ramifi cations beyond what a new delivery Internet, Internet banking is nothing more than traditional banking services channel would normally envisage and, hence, has compelled regulators world over to take note of this emerging channel. Some of the distinctive features of i-banking are: 1. It removes the traditional geographical barriers as it could reach out to customers of different countries / legal jurisdiction. This has raised the question of jurisdiction