Pre-20th Century Black Resistance to Disenfranchisement
Despite continuous attempts to keep them away from the ballot box and out of government, African Americans fought to keep their voices heard.
Throughout the later part of the 19th century, several black men held elected office in the South, in both the state legislatures and in Washington D.C. Those Black voters who were able to make it beyond the deliberate barriers at the polls continued to vote in order to advance their interests and combat injustice.