grandfather clause

The purpose of the 'grandfather clause' was to assure those to whom Congress had extended its benefits a 'substantial parity between future operations and prior bona fide operations'.

A clause introduced into several of the constitutions of the southern states, limited the right to vote to those who can read and write any article of the constitution of the United States, and have worked or been regularly employed in some lawful employment for the greater part of the year next preceding the time they offer to register unless prevented from labor or ability to read or write by physical disability, or who own property assessed, at three hundred dollars upon which the taxes have been paid; but those who have served in the army or navy of the United States or in the Confederate States in time of war, their lawful descendants in every degree, and persons of good character who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government were relieved from the operation of this law. In 1902 nine-tenths of the negroes of Alabama were thereby disqualified. In Giles v. Harris, 189 U. S. 476, 23 Sup. Ct. 689, 47 L. Ed. 909, a negro filed a bill in equity praying that the defendant board of registry be required to enroll his name and those of other negroes on the voting list and that certain sections of the constitution of Alabama be tion. The bill was dismissed on the ground that equity has no jurisdiction over political matters; Brewer, Brown, and Harlan, JJ., dissenting.