The purpose of the grandfather clause in early voter registration laws was to

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The grandfather clause was a provision in many Southern states' voter registration laws that allowed white citizens to circumvent literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tactics designed to disenfranchise black voters. It stated that if a voter's grandfather had been eligible to vote before the Civil War, then they were exempt from such requirements, effectively ensuring white citizens could vote while black citizens, whose grandfathers were enslaved and thus ineligible to vote, could not.

The Purpose of the Grandfather Clause in Early Voter Registration