STACEY L. SMITH: [In the 1860s,] Californias Democratic legislature refused to ratify the 14th Amendment, which would guarantee African-American civil rights, and rejected the 15th Amendment, which would give voting rights to black men. California would not ratify these crucial pieces of legislation until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The ultimate ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments at the national level finally forced California to recognize African-American civil rights and to extend voting rights to black men. Still, the Legislature’s attempt to revive the antiblack policies of the prewar era, and to link them to the anti-Chinese movement, dashed African-American activists’ dreams of a reconstructed California, where race and color would no longer stand as barriers to full freedom.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 04:10:15 +0000
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