The Right To Vote Is Never Safe Summary

After reading the article “The Right to Vote is Never Safe” by Jon Grinspan, published on November 4th, 2017 there are several things that can be said. To begin with, this article is based on everything that took place not so long ago, that people have failed to realize how important it is today. Grinspan practically spoke on all that happened and that took place in order for black men and poor white men to finally vote. Grinspan also mentions the old Protestant elites and how they sought to hold voting from immigrants while rising urban machines sought to harness their votes. At first poor whites thought they had it bad because of obstacles that had to go through in order to get their vote in, but it was the colored men that had it worst.
Grinspan also happened to mention something else, “the longer-term trend of volatile voting rights has re-emerged in the 21st century”. Back throughout the 19th Century many black citizens, were freed slaves who happened to go through hell and back in order to finally be able to vote.
It was about right after the Civil War who not all yet some had the chance to vote under the 15th amendment and by the federal legislation. Unfortunately that happened to change, due to the white redeemer governments that took over the southern states. Making it extremely hard for others such as black men and poor white men to be able to vote. Suppressing the black men to vote was very high on their to-do-list. There are and will always be information that has never made it out for the public to hear, yet in the article Grinspan mentions a few. Grinspan goes into detail on how things took place. Starting from the beginning, many freed black men were to vote only in confederate states. Which is why there was a big issue to begin with. There were laws, rules and regulations passed on trying to stop them. Such as the poll tax, property owning, the grandfather clause, literacy test and much more. In the article, Grinspan goes into detail on how black men were treated and how brutal violence came to be because of this. Grinspan states that, “The year after those first votes, in Louisiana alone 1,081 people, mostly black, were killed during political conflicts, according to a congressional study. By the end of the century a tide of revised state constitutions, enforced with shotguns and bullwhips, made voting by blacks all but
impossible.” What is sad to say about now is that so many important people use their force to impact the world. To help us get to where we are today and yet, some people take it for granted. An issue from then till now will definitely have to be on how some people eye’s are not open. Just a year ago today, Donald Trump became president. President Trump lost the popular vote, yet managed to win the electoral vote. And as soon as that happened, he began an inquiry into alleged voter fraud. Grinspan mentions in the article that, “Americans are again debating the right to vote, and focusing on state voting laws, in ways we haven’t for nearly a century.” Which is not good either because that nearly means that everything that took place before was for nothing and that is not what is suppose to happen. “We must be proud of our first votes- and mindful of our last.”