Ratified in January 1964, the 24th Amendment made it illegal to deny a citizen the right to vote in a federal election for failure to pay a poll tax.
This device had been used by Southern states since Reconstruction to prevent blacks from voting.
Started in 1936, The Negro Motorist Green Book was a travel guide designed to “give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments, and to make his trips more enjoyable.”
The first known case of wiretapping in American politics occurred at the Republican convention in Chicago in 1912, when opponents of Teddy Roosevelt tapped the phones he used to communicate with his managers. When Roosevelt learned of it, he left his home in Oyster Bay, New York, and came to Chicago to talk to his…
Gerald R. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., in 1913. His parents divorced when he was an infant; his mother then married Gerald R. Ford, Sr., who adopted the future president and gave him his name.
There have been two “Banks of the United States”, both chartered by Congress and both allowed to expire after 20 years. The First Bank of the United States lasted from 1791 to 1811, the second from 1816 to 1836. Each served as the federal government’s fiscal agents and repositories of federal funds. The banks were…
The first “Negro History Week” was organized in the second week of February, 1926, by Carter G. Woodson. It was meant to include the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and the traditional birthday of Frederick Douglass. It was expanded in the 1960s to “Black History Month.”
The famous mining town Deadwood, South Dakota from the gold rush days that now stands as the final resting place for Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, has 1,830 inhabitants. Every August it relives its frontier past in a three-day “Days of ’76” celebration, featuring a historical parade and rodeos. In 1992, Deadwood held its…