What did "grandfather clauses" do?

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"Grandfather clauses" were legal mechanisms used primarily in the Southern United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They allowed individuals to bypass literacy tests, poll taxes, and other voting restrictions if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote before the Civil War, effectively enabling many poor and illiterate whites to vote while disenfranchising African Americans, whose ancestors were not eligible to vote before the Civil War.

What Did "Grandfather Clauses" Do