{"id":28558,"date":"2024-05-06T12:54:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T16:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actec.matrixdev.net\/?post_type=video&p=28558"},"modified":"2024-05-06T14:12:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T18:12:53","slug":"the-origin-of-grandfathered-and-the-grandfather-clause","status":"publish","type":"video","link":"https:\/\/actec.matrixdev.net\/resource-center\/video\/the-origin-of-grandfathered-and-the-grandfather-clause\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origin of “Grandfathered” and the “Grandfather Clause”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The terms “grandfathered” and “grandfather clause” have significant historical and legal implications, particularly in the context of American history and its legacy of racial discrimination. The origin of these terms can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily in the Southern United States, during Reconstruction and the subsequent Jim Crow eras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These clauses exempted individuals from meeting the new suffrage requirements if they or their ancestors had been eligible to vote prior to a certain date. Since the vast majority of African Americans were enslaved or otherwise disenfranchised before the Civil War and Reconstruction, they were effectively excluded from this exemption, while many white voters were eligible. The grandfather clauses were eventually struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, which found that they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by disenfranchising African American voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does an appreciation of the history of \u201cgrandfathered\u201d or “grandfather clause” change your desire to use the terms in legal documents and oral discussions? In this video, ACTEC Fellow Stephanie Perry<\/a> discusses with Fellow Ronald Aucutt<\/a> a paper he wrote, \u201cComments on the Word ‘Grandfathered’ and its Variants,\u201d and how it has impacted their use of the terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n