The Constitution and the Right to Vote

Follows the efforts to gain the right to vote for Negroes through a succession of legal decision and social changes. Dramatizes the case of Smith vs. Allwright et al. Reviews the long conflict to extend voting rights to a large electorate beginning with the Constitutional Convention's compromise over dropping property requirements through and including the enactment of the 15th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution. Cites legal precedents established by the U.S. Supreme Court through their decisions concerning the control of state primaries in 1918 and 1935 and the later reversals in 1941 and 1944. Points to the issues involved in Federal encroachment upon state's rights., Shows the relationship of the Constitution to the struggles of the Negro for voting rights. Presents two lawsuits--Townsend and Smith v. Allwright--attacking the constitutionality of the white primary. Traces the growth of the electorate from the time of the founding fathers.