Prejudice And Racism's Suffrage In The United States

For more than 200 years before the civil war blacks weren’t treated equal and even after things didn’t get better only worse. The Williams vs Mississippi case was fought over black suffrage. The court case took place in Washington County, Mississippi. The jury consisted of all whites; the jury ratio was 9-0 (9 white men and 0 black men). Henry Williams was the African American defendant in the case who was charged for murder. He believed that if blacks were not allowed to be part of the grand jury then the murder charged against him should be abolished. Williams claimed that he was being discriminated against and was unfairly sentenced. Williams also believed he qualified for being able to vote hence, the case that the qualifications adapted into the constitution of 1890 were discriminatory towards African Americans as well as poor whites.
After winning equal rights and having the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment protecting their rights, African Americans were still treated unfairly. In 1898, the Williams vs Mississippi court decided to implement new developments. The impact of the court decision was that it limited racial equality by lowering the voter turnout, rapidly increasing segregation laws, and putting whites back into power. Due to restricted African American voting the voter turnout declined from above 70 percent to 34 percent and lower. Plessy v Ferguson ruled that segregation was legal as long as service provided were equal for blacks and whites. The new implementations gave Democrats almost complete control of the