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Guinn V. United StatesGuinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915) was an important United States Supreme Court decision that dealt with Jim Crow laws, which helped enforce segregation in the United States between 1865 and 1964. Background At the time of the admission of Oklahoma into the Union, in 1907, that state adopted a constitution which allowed blacks to vote, in compliance with the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, an amendment to the Constitution soon followed, requiring voters to be literate. However, a loophole in the amendment allowed illiterates to vote if they could prove their grandfathers had been voters. As a result, illiterate whites were able to vote - but not illiterate blacks, whose grandfathers had mostly been slaves, and who had therefore been barred from voting. The amendment came into force before the election of November 8, 1910 was held. During that election, certain election officers refused to allow black citizens to vote; those officers were indicted and convicted of fraudulently disenfranchishing black voters, in violation of the 15th Amendment and in violation of Oklahoma State Law. The Oklahoma Amendment "No person shall be registered as an elector of this state or be allowed to vote in any election held herein, unless he be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma; but no person who was, on January 1st, 1866, or any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under any form of government, or who at that time resided in some foreign nation, and no lineal descendant of such person, shall be denied the right to register and vote because of his inability to so read and write sections of such Constitution. Precinct election inspectors having in charge the registration of electors shall enforce the provisions of this section at the time of registration, provided registration be required. Should registration be dispensed with, the provisions of this section shall be enforced by the precinct election officers when electors apply for ballots to vote." The Case Argued before the Court on October 17, 1913. The Decision Handed down on June 21, 1915, in the decision the Court ruled that an Oklahoma law that denied the right to vote to some citizens was unconstitutional. See also External links
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