Context-1901

The 1901 Alabama Constitutional Convention was called by Southern Democrats of the state with the express goal “within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State.” Its provisions essentially disenfranchised most African Americans and thousands of poor white Europeans, who were excluded from voting until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The constitution also gave the Alabama Legislature the power to administer most counties directly, with only a few counties having even limited home rule, further entrenching disfranchisement by limiting local autonomy.

Author Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes that Alabama, in establishing its constitution, followed the  “Mississippi Plan,” named for the Mississippi state constitution (ratified in 1890), which was a blueprint for thwarting Black rights and eliminating the Black vote. Although the 15th Amendment had given Black men the right to vote in 1870, whites immediately undermined Black civil rights through violence, intimidation and fraud, especially in the former Confederate States. Mississippi state senators successfully blocked the “force bill” that would have provided federal supervision of elections. Mississippians also took other means to thwart the rights of Blacks.

While the 15th Amendment mandated suffrage to all qualified male voters regardless of color, the power to determine what constituted a qualified voter still remained with the states. When Mississippi’s constitutional convention met in August 1890, it sought one result: to eliminate the Black vote. On Dec. 22, 1890, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger stated plainly that the convention was held “to restrict suffrage—negro suffrage, if you please.” Among the restrictions established were a new two-dollar poll tax and the requirement to register at least four months in advance of an election. Anyone with a criminal conviction was disqualified from voting, and those seeking to register had to demonstrate that they could read a section of the state constitution and understand it.

The Mississippi Plan established a blueprint for other Southern states. South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama and Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), and Oklahoma (1910) all used similar tactics to formally disenfranchise Black voters.

At 388,882 words, the 1901 Alabama Constitution was 12 times longer than the average state constitution, 51 times longer than the U.S. Constitution, and the longest and most amended constitution operative anywhere in the world. The English version of the Constitution of India, the longest national constitution in the world, is about 145,000 words long, less than 40% of the length of Alabama’s.

Source
Wikipedia.com – Alabama Constitution of 1901
Bending the Arc Project – Open Secret