Guinn v. United States - Significance, Oklahoma's Grandfather Clause, A Political Decision, The Supreme Court Decides, Civil Rights And Wrongs

Guinn v. United States - Further Readings

Guinn v. United States - Significance

A unanimous Supreme Court had for the first time struck down a state law disenfranchising African Americans; however, Oklahoma almost immediately found another way to continue discriminating against black voters and the federal government took no action, leaving black Americans effectively disenfranchised in much of the nation until the voting rights movement of the 1960s. The story of African Ame…

Guinn v. United States - Oklahoma's Grandfather Clause

When Oklahoma was admitted into the Union in 1908, there was no Grandfather clause in its constitution. Almost immediately, however, this Southern state amended its constitution to read in part no person shall be registered . . . or allowed to vote, unless he be able to read and write any section of the [state] constitution . . . no person who was, on January 1, 1866, or at any time prior thereto,…

Guinn v. United States - A Political Decision

Meanwhile, the 1912 presidential election was approaching. The Republican Taft was running against two candidates. Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt had excluded black people entirely from his strategy, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson was a Southerner. Taft suddenly saw good reason to appeal to black voters, and his Justice Department passed the word--any Oklahoma officials who did not le…

Guinn v. United States - The Supreme Court Decides

Taft lost the 1912 election to Woodrow Wilson. Despite the fact that Wilson was a Democrat and a Southerner, many civil rights leaders saw him as their best hope. But would he agree with the United States' position in the case of Guinn and Beal? These two officials had turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, claiming that they should not be prosecuted for upholding the law of t…

Guinn v. United States - Civil Rights And Wrongs

The Supreme Court decision was greeted with joy by those who supported civil rights. One of the historic features of the case was the participation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who had submitted a "friend of the court" brief through Moorfield Storey. He and his NAACP colleagues stated that the decision "was a very great victory . . . a great step in ad…