Question

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were used in the South after 1890 to

(1)support the goals of the Freedmen’s Bureau
(2)deny suffrage rights to African Americans
(3)undermine the “separate but equal” ruling of the Supreme Court
(4)enforce the amendments enacted during the Civil War and Reconstruction

Answer 1

Southern states utilized poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses to disenfranchise African Americans and maintain white supremacy after 1890.

Step-by-step explanation:

After 1890, Southern states implemented various restrictive measures to deprive African Americans of their voting rights. The methods included imposing a poll tax, which was a fee that had to be paid before one could vote, effectively disenfranchising those who could not afford to pay. Additionally, literacy tests were introduced, which ostensibly measured a person's knowledge but were administered in a biased manner to disqualify African Americans. Also, grandfather clauses were utilized, which allowed individuals to bypass these voting prerequisites if they or their ancestors had voted prior to the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment, benefiting white citizens as African Americans had not been allowed to vote before that time.

Answer 2

The Grandfather Clauses, poll taxes, and the literacy tests that were used in the Southern states after 1890 were used to deny the suffrage rights to the African Americans. The grandfather clause only allowed people to vote who had voted previously. Since the African Americans had never voted, this made it impossible for them to vote. Since the African American people were slaves previously and had no formal schools, they couldn't pass the literacy tests. Also, they couldn't afford to pay the poll taxes. This all changed with the Civil Rights Act in 1964.