On April 27, 1903, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a devastating blow to Black civil rights by upholding Alabama’s constitutional amendments that effectively disenfranchised Black voters. In Giles v. Harris, the Court declined to intervene against racially biased voter registration practices, citing that federal courts could not enforce voting rights if the state refused to comply. Despite clear evidence that Alabama’s poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were designed to suppress Black suffrage, the Court’s decision marked a legal retreat from the promises of the 15th Amendment. This ruling helped solidify Jim Crow laws and voter suppression across the South for decades.
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