The Negro and the elective franchise. A series of papers and a sermon

"The Negro and the Elective Franchise: A Series of Papers and a Sermon" by Archibald H. Grimké and others is a collection of essays and discussions centered around the political rights of African Americans, specifically focusing on their right to vote, written in the early 20th century. The texts reflect on historical injustices stemming from the U.S. Constitution and the systemic efforts to disfranchise Black voters in the Southern states following the Civil War and Reconstruction era. The work serves as a critical examination of the obstacles faced by Black citizens in exercising their electoral rights as well as the political dynamics between the North and South. The opening of the work presents a comprehensive analysis of the electoral representation of Black Americans, particularly highlighting the impact of the three-fifths compromise and subsequent legislation that sought to reduce their political power. Grimké details how Southern states have systematically suppressed the Negro vote, employing manipulative legal barriers that allow them to count African Americans in their population while simultaneously denying them the right to vote. Furthermore, he warns that this erosion of democratic rights not only harms Black citizens but also undermines the integrity and future of American democracy as a whole. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Archibald Henry Grimké was an African-American lawyer, intellectual, journalist, diplomat and community leader in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He graduated from freedmen's schools, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School, and served as American Consul to the Dominican Republic from 1894 to 1898. He was an activist for the rights of Black Americans, working in Boston and Washington, D.C. He was a national vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as president of its Washington, D.C. chapter.