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Article: Primary, White
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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PRIMARY, WHITE
PRIMARY, WHITE.
The white primary was one of several means used by white southern politicians in the first half of the twentieth century to control black political power. By preventing blacks from voting in Democratic primaries, southern whites effectively disfranchised them, since primaries are more important than general elections in one-party states. At first southern whites set up primary-election machinery so as to exclude most blacks, but without direct reference to race. In 1923 the Texas legislature enacted a law specifically declaring blacks ineligible to participate in the state's primary elections. In
Smith v. Allwright
(1944) the Supreme Court ruled that ...