The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-22
Supreme Court Hands Down One of Most Important
 Race Decisions in the History of the Country
THE GRANDFATHER CLAUSE OF SOUTHERN
 STATES IS AFFECTED
Fifteenth Amendment Elim- mated Color as Means of
 Distinguishment at Polls,
 Holds Chief Justice White

Washington. June 21.-In probably one of the most important race de- cisions in it's history, the supreme court today annulled as unconsttu tional the Oklahoma constitutional amendment and the Annapolis. Md, voters qualification law restricting the suffrage rights of those who could not vote or whose ancestors could not vote prior to the ratifica- ton of the fifteenth amendment to the federal constitution.
 Chief Justice White, native of the south and a former Confederate soldier, announced the courts decision, which was unanimous except that Justice Mickey holds took no part in the case.
 By holding that conditions that existed before the fifteenth amendment. which provides that the right to vote shall not be denied abridged on account of race. color or previous condition of servitude, could not be brought over to the present day in disregard of this self-executlng amendment. 1t is generally believed that
 the court went long way toward in- validating much of the so-called grand father clause" legislation of southern states.
 The immediate effect of the courts de- cision was to uphold the conviction of two Oklahoma election officials who de- nied negroes the right to vote in con gressonal election, and to award three
 Mary)and negroes damages from election officials in Annapolis. who refused to register them. The court held that these election officials could not ignore the potency of the fifteenth amendment in wiping out of state constitutions the word white" as a qualification for voting, In the Maryland case, the courts decision established the point that the fifteenth amendment applies alike to municipal as well as to federal elections
 Fix Literacy Standard
 Discussing the Oklanoma cases, Chief Justice White said the suffrage amend ment to the state constitution first fixed a literacy standard, and then followed it with a provision creating a standard DdStu uDOn tne CDIulllOl tNlSillE btl Jul- uary l. 1866. prior to the adoption of the fifteenth amendment, and eliminated those
 coming under that standard from the inclusion in the literacy test.
 The court had difficulty, he said in finding words to more clearly demonstrate
 it's conviction that this action of the state recreated and perpetuated the very conditions which the Fifteenth amendment
 was intended to destroy than the lan- guage used in the amendment
 ''It Is true.' continued the chief justice,
 that it contains no express words of an
 exclusion from the standard which il establishes of any person on account of race. color or previous condition of servi- tude prohibited by the fifteenth amend ment. but the standard itself inherently
 brings that result into existence since
 it is based purely upon a period of time
 before the enactment of the fifteenth amendment and makes that period the controlling and dominant test of the right of suffrage.
 "In other words, we seek in vain for any ground which would sustain any
 ether interpretation but tha. the pro- vision, recurring to the conditions existing before the fifteenth amendment was adopted and the continuance of which the fifteenth amendment prohibited proposed by, in substance and effect. lifting those
 conditions over a period of time after the amendment to make them the basis Of the right to suffrage conferred in direct and positive disregard of the fifteenth amend nent. And the same result. we are of the opinion. is demonstrated by consider ing whether it Is possible to discover any basis of reason sfor the standard thus fixed other than the purpose above. No Reason for Classification
 "We say this because We are unable to discover how unless the prohibitions of the fifteenth amendment were considered. the slightest reason was afforded for bas- ing the classification upon a period of tContinued on Page Tenl