sons,
and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United States,
twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided in the state
two years, and one year in the election district * * * in which he
offers to vote and who is duly registered as provided in this
article, and who has never been convicted of bribery, burglary,
theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense,
perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has paid on or before the
first day of February of the year in which he offers to vote, all
taxes which may have been legally required of him and who shall
produce to the officer holding the election satisfactory evidence
that he has paid his taxes."

Under this section of the Mississippi constitution, the white population
of that state qualified as electors. But to prevent the Negroes from
qualifying, section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons
offering to register shall take the following oath:

"I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I will
have resided in the state two years and (this) election district
for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am now in good
faith a resident of the same, and that I am not disqualified from
voting by reason of having been convicted of any of the crimes
mentioned in the constitution of this state as a disqualification
to be an elector, that I will truly answer _all questions
propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far as they relate to
my right to vote_ and also as to _my residence before my citizenship
in this district_, that I will support the constitution of the
United States and of the state of Mississippi and will bear true
faith and allegiance to the same--so help me God.

Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or in
answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized
shall be perjury."

In the foregoing provisions attention is called to the following:

(1) The crimes mentioned as disqualifying from voting are such as it is
always easy, when desirable, to convict the Negro of committing. Under
the present method of administering justice in the states where these
disfranchising constitutions operate, the Negro has neither any
guarantee of a fair and impartial trial nor any protection against
malicious prosecution or false accusations when it is con