Truth-Telling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells

Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890

At the time of the interview, the Mississippi state government was debating a new constitution. Its leaders freely admitted that their purpose was to restrict black voting rights. As Willard mentions, one of the proposals being considered would give white women the vote in order to dilute black voting power. While women's suffrage was ultimately not implemented, the new constitution, known as the Mississippi Plan, did implement the literacy tests and poll taxes that would become the cornerstone of Jim Crow throughout the South.

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