ently the only
whites debarred under this clause were the illiterate and indigent sons
of foreign-born fathers.

North Carolina adopted a new suffrage article in 1900 which is much
simpler than those just described. It requires two years' residence in
the State, one in the county, and the payment of poll tax before the 1st
of May in the election year. A uniform educational qualification is laid
down, but the "permanent roll" is also included. No "male person who was
on January 1, 1867, or at any other time prior thereto, entitled to vote
under the laws of any State in the United States, wherein he then resided,
and no lineal descendant of any such person shall be denied the right to
register and vote at any election in the State by reason of his failure to
possess the educational qualifications herein prescribed: _Provided_ he
shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior to
December 1, 1908." In other words, any white illiterate thirteen years old
or over when the amendment was adopted would not be deprived of his vote
because of the lack of educational qualifications. No other State had given
so long a time as this.

The "grandfather clause" here was shrewdly drawn. Free negroes voted in
North Carolina until 1835, and under the terms of the clause any negro
who could prove descent from a negro voter could not be debarred because
of illiteracy. Negroes voted in a few States in 1867, and they or their
descendants were exempt from the educational test. Of course the number
of these was negligible, and the clause accomplished precisely what it was
intended to do--that is, it disfranchised a large proportion of the negroes
and yet allowed the whites to vote. The extension of the time of
registration until 1908, eight years after the amendment was adopted and
six after it went into effect, made the disfranchisement of any
considerable number of whites impossible.

Alabama followed in 1901, combining the South Carolina and the Louisiana
plans and including the usual residence and poll tax requirements, as
well as the permanent roll. This was to be made up before December 20,
1902, and included soldiers of the United States, or of the State of
Alabama in any war, soldiers of the Confederate States, their lawful
descendants, and "men of good character who understood the duties and
obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government." After
the permanent roll has been made up, the appli