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| Mr. Pickens: The colored people are discriminated against in the Southern States in the matter of voting. We will give you the facts to show some of the direct action of that discrimination. I was born in South Carolina. | Mr. Pickens: Black Americans are discriminated against in the Southern states when it comes to voting. We will share some examples. I was born in South Carolina. |
| Not long ago I was down in that State when the women were being registered; I saw colored women discriminated against by the registrars, and 32 of the women have now sworn to affidavits against the registrars for denying them the right of registration. This denial was made not only in violation of the general laws of the United States, but in violation of the laws of South Carolina; | Not long ago I was in South Carolina when women were registering to vote. I saw Black women discriminated against by the clerks, and thirty-two of the women have now signed statements swearing they were denied registration. This denial breaks the general laws of the United States and the specific laws of South Carolina. |
| for while that law requires that a man (or woman) must be able to read and write and to read parts of the Constitution of the State or of United States, it does not say anything about questions and answers. These people were asked questions from civil and criminal codes, some things that a great many of the lawyers could hardly answer. | South Carolina law requires that voters must be able to read and write. They can be asked to read parts of the US Constitution aloud. But the law does not say anything about a test. These women were asked difficult legal questions that even lawyers would struggle to answer. |
| They were also discriminated against in the manner of getting registered. I saw colored women standing in line from 8 o’clock in the morning until 8 o’clock at night waiting to be registered, while white people who came along in the afternoon were registered ahead of them. | The process of registration was also discriminatory. I saw Black women wait in line for twelve hours while white people were allowed in as soon as they arrived. |
| We can supply the facts in any number of cases like that. | We can share even more examples. |
| Mr. Hersey: In what State was that done, in what city or town?
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Representative Hershey: Where was that done? What city or town?
Mr. Pickens: In Columbia, South Carolina. And some of these women are licensed teachers who work in Columbia’s schools. |
| Mr. Bee: Here is what I want to ask you in that connection—that was done in violation of a national law, or it was done in violation of a State law, was it not? | Representative Bee: So what you saw, did it violate state or national law? |
| Mr. Pickens: By all means, it was done in violation of State law, as well as national law. | Mr. Pickens: It violated state and national law. |
| Mr. Bee: Now, then, what has the Congress of the United States got to do with violation of a State law by election officials? How can we go into the question of violation of State law when the State law gives protection? How do you propose that Congress can go down there and punish guilty officials for violation of a written law of the State? | Representative Bee: What can Congress do about violations of state law by election officials? How can Congress take action when the state law gives protection? How do you think Congress should go about punishing people for violating state laws? |
| Mr. Pickens: I do not think there is any such prohibition written in the State or Federal Constitution or anywhere else, nor is there in common sense anything that would justify that. We are not complaining merely about the law. As I stated in the beginning these laws are written so as to square with the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments; but the administration of the laws by these State officials is a different matter. | Mr. Pickens: I do not think there are any state or national laws that should prevent you from punishing people who are denying people their voting rights. We are not complaining about the law. We are complaining that the laws are written to uphold the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, but the election officials are enforcing them in a discriminatory way. |
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on the Census, excerpt from “Statement of Mr. William Pickens, New York City, N.Y.” Hearings before the Committee on the Census. 66th Congress, 3rd Session. December 29, 1920.
Background
The Nineteenth Amendment was a tremendous victory, but it did not solve the problem of racial discrimination in voting. Jim Crow policies, intimidation tactics, and violence had kept large numbers of Black men from exercising their right to vote for decades. Black women now faced the same hurdles. This was particularly true in the South, where most states had rejected ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment specifically to stop Black women from voting.
Black women faced a range of challenges leading up to and during the election of 1920. Mississippi and Georgia blocked all women voters by closing new voter registration before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. In Massachusetts, Black women received fake letters claiming that women who registered to vote would face huge fines. In South Carolina and Virginia, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) used terrorist strategies to keep women away from the polls. In Ocoee, Florida, the KKK murdered fifty Black men and women for attempting to vote on Election Day.
Less than two months after Election Day in 1920, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) testified before Congress. Its representatives shared that without enforcement, the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth Amendments were not enough. Black men and women were unable to vote because of local discrimination and intimidation. They demanded that Congress take action.
About the Resources
This is a brief excerpt from the NAACP’s two-day testimony before Congress. In this excerpt, William Pickens, a NAACP field secretary, describes the discrimination Black women voters faced in South Carolina. He is questioned by Ira G. Hersey, a Republican representative from Maine, and Carlos Bee, a Democratic representative from Texas.
Vocabulary
- Fifteenth Amendment: The constitutional amendment that declared the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; it was ratified in 1870.
- Fourteenth Amendment: The constitutional amendment that declared all citizens have equal protection under the law; it was ratified in 1868.
- Jim Crow: The name for the many laws, rules, and customs that maintained segregation after the Civil War, often through violence and intimidation. The original Jim Crow was a minstrel character performed by a white actor in blackface to ridicule Black Americans.
- Ku Klux Klan (KKK): A white supremacy group formed by ex-Confederates after the Civil War that terrorized Black citizens and their supporters.
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): A civil rights organization that was founded in 1909 and still exists today.
- Nineteenth Amendment: The constitutional amendment that declared the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of sex; it was ratified in 1920.
- ratification: The action of signing or giving formal consent to a law, making it officially valid.
Discussion Questions
- According to William Pickens’s testimony, how did registrars in Columbia, South Carolina, prevent Black women from voting?
- What additional information does William Pickens provide about these women? Why might he think that is important to include?
- How do the representatives respond to William Pickens testimony? What does this reveal about the prevailing attitudes toward voting discrimination in the US?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 7.4: The Progressives
- Explore the broader history of Black suffrage using the Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow curriculum. Consider how Black men and women were prevented from voting, and how Black citizens fought against these oppressive policies and actions.
- Research the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration, with a specific focus on women. Explore some of the reasons Black men and women migrated north by analyzing William Pickens’s testimony in combination with Fannie Barrier Williams’s article in The Chicago Defender, the photograph of Southern anti-suffragists, the life story of Ida B. Wells, and additional materials in the Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow curriculum guide.
- Ask students to think about how Black suffragists would have felt about the incidents described in William Pickens’s testimony and the resistance Congress presented to his arguments. Pair this document with one of the many Black suffragists in this unit: Adella Hunt Logan, Fannie Barrier Williams, Ida B. Wells, or Mary Church Terrell.
- Consider this testimony in juxtaposition to the photograph of Southern anti-suffragists and other examples of Jim Crow racism in the Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow curriculum guide. Do these additional resources confirm or challenge William Pickens’s testimony?
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS; ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE; AMERICAN IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP
New-York Historical Society Curriculum Library Connections
- For more about the Black experience in this era, see Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow.
