Mississippi and Louisiana

Let's look at some events in African American history that occurred in MS and LA.

The state of Mississippi feared that as long as blacks could vote, corruption and fraud characterized the state's government. So in 1890, a state constitutional convention rewrote the state constitution and added a clause that stated that blacks could not vote. This constiution became known as the Mississippi plan. Some liberals in the government disliked this plan and took it to Supreme Court in 1897. In this case, Williams v. Mississippi, Supreme Court upheld the plan, so blacks could not vote in MS.
Louisiana tried to disenfranchise blacks by literacy tests or property tests, which stated that one had to own a certain amount of land AND pay their taxes on that land in order to vote. In 1898, LA passed a Grandfather Clause, which stated that no property or literacy tests would be given to blacks whose fathers or grandfathers were legally allowed to vote on January 1st, 1867. No blacks could vote on that date, therefore, the Clause disallowed blacks from voting or participating in the government in LA.






Sources:
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/weblect/lec02/02_05.htm