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Essay

Introduction

Disenfranchisement era, the age where minorities suffered a great deal of discrimination and racism. Right after the American Civil War, the Confederates in the southern states were shown no mercy as they waged war against the state. Abraham Lincoln signed the act of emancipation and freed many slaves that became a part of the war and led the northern states or the Union to victory (Rable). The white Democrats were not happy with the states of affairs they were facing and with alliances and unions with other political parties, got a hold of the legislation for an extended period of time. The rigging of elections became prominent, and suffrage of voting was suppressed. Minorities were not allowed to take part in the electoral process. This discriminatory process was common in all of the southern states. Texas, Mississippi, Virginia and others were all engulfed in the fire of discrimination. From 1880 t6 1965, the African Americans and Mexican Americans were deprived of their voting rights. The fifteenth amendment safeguarded the rights of the minorities to vote, and in this light, the southern states or the Confederate states made a system to counter this amendment (Svirnovskiy 32). The acts of violence, frauds, poll taxes and many other acts were played and executed by the southern states and white Democrats of that time to defeat the basic concept of the fifteenth amendment and suppress the minorities.

Discussion

In Texas, the system of white primaries was devised to prevent the minority groups from taking their part in the elections, which was the constitutional right of the minorities. This system was brought forward as a result of the ruling made by the supreme court against the southern states acts that were based on discriminatory practices. The primary elections of the democratic party thus resisted the minority groups to contest for the elections and not allowing them to hold any public office. The supreme court in this way was out of bounds to term this step of the democratic party illegal. However, the rulings were made time and time again by federal courts against the democratic party and its steps of racism. It was held that political parties were a part of the state and acted as state officials if they win elections, so the fifteenth amendment played a vital role in ensuring a fair electoral process without any concept of discrimination. So, in 1953, the issue of the white primary was put to an end (Caramani and Grotz). Minorities were given the right to vote and take part in the electoral process and could hold any public office.

The state of Texas still is facing the issue of the right to vote. As many as 95,000 voters were termed, unregistered voters. Later it was claimed that many of them might be natural citizens of the United States. The release of this much numbers of the alleged non-registered voters was challenged by the Latin America society. A lawsuit filed by the society, terming the release of the numbers is an attempt to deprive the Latin Americans of their right to vote and suppress them from taking part in the future electoral process. It is evident that this issue becomes the limelight after every election year and minorities suffer. This problem is still persisting in many states, and people are terming the current electoral system as flawed. A new law was devised by the Republican legislators of the Texas, where a photo ID was required for the electoral process to go through. Many citizens were not issued any sort of photo ID by the government, and hence it was an obstacle for many voters who were facing this issue (Murty and Holyfield-Moss 120-132). The Texas voters ID law is still considered a law which deprives the minorities of taking part in the voting process.

Conclusion

The proper use and exercise of powers was never an issue for the Congress and for the federal courts, yet they couldn't make things normal and right for the minorities. The system we can say is flawed as these issues are present as we speak. After every election year, we come across many news and articles where the right to vote is being discussed. Even the courts did not take proper measures to make this right for our great country. This needs to be discussed and legislated at all levels so everyone can enjoy their rights in accordance with the constitution of the United States of America.

Work Cited

Murty, Komanduri S., and Bridget Holyfield-Moss. "RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS RELATED TO VOTER ID LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES." Race, Gender & Class 24.1/2 (2017): 120-132.

Svirnovskiy, Simon Y. "Finding a Right to Remain: Immigration, Deportation, and Due Process." Nw. JL & Soc. Pol'y 12 (2016): 32.

Caramani, Daniele, and Florian Grotz. Voting Rights in the Era of Globalization. Routledge, 2018.

Rable, George C. "Index to Civil War Regiments: A Journal of the American Civil War." (2018).