Black people remained blocked because Louisiana laws before 1867 disenfranchised nearly all Black men-especially those who were enslaved. This clause enabled many illiterate and poor white men to get around the literacy and property requirements. In response, lawmakers drafted a “Grandfather Clause” which created an exception for those whose ancestors were registered to vote before 1867. When the restrictive voting provisions were first proposed for the 1898 Louisiana constitution, some white officials expressed concern that the property and literacy requirements would also disenfranchise an estimated 25% of the white male population of voting age.

In Louisiana, framers explicitly expressed their goal to “purify the electorate.” After Reconstruction ended in 1877 and white politicians and lawmakers regained control and power in the South, many efforts were made to restore that racial order through very strict laws that stripped Black people of many of their new civil rights-including the right to vote. All of these developments threatened to overturn Southern culture and social relations, which were based in white supremacy and racial hierarchy. The year 1865 included the Confederacy's defeat in the Civil War, widespread emancipation, and the abolition of slavery. The new Louisiana Constitution, however, created a poll tax, literacy and property-ownership requirements, and a complex voter registration form all designed and enforced to disproportionately disenfranchise Black male voters. At this time in the U.S., women of all races remained barred from voting, while Black men had recently gained the right to vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. On May 12, 1898, the state of Louisiana adopted a new constitution with numerous restrictive provisions intended to exclude African American men from civic participation.

Grandfather clause history