BLACK SUFFRAGE Minnesota Blacks twice denied right to vote Editor's note: The Legislature will not be in session on Martin Luther King Day Jan. 21. We offer this feature in his memory. Minnesota has often been considered a progressive state. But few Minnesotans know that on two occasions Minnesota voters denied Black men and Indian men the right to vote. The first time was in 1865 when an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution was proposed that would have granted voting rights to all men. But the proposed amendment, which was put on the ballot that year by the Republican Legislature, was voted down by the people by a 54.7-45.3 percent margin. The vote total was 14,651 people voting against the amendment; 12,135 for it. It was the first of two defeats for Black men and Indian men in Minnesota on the enfranchisement question, but it was one issue where the Republican-dominated Legislature was out in front of the people. Undaunted by the setback, Republicans in the Legislature -- who were urged on by Republican Gov. William Marshall -- once again worked to get a bill passed that would put the question of Black enfranchisement on the ballot. They succeeded in 1867, but the measure failed once again, although by a much smaller margin. This time the vote was 28,794 against the proposal and 27,479 for it, a margin of 51.2 percent to 48.8 percent. But the Republicans -- aided by the people -- were successful the following year. In 1868, Minnesota voters approved the equal suffrage amendment by a 56.7 percent to 43.3 percent margin. The final vote was 39,493 people in favor of the amendment and 30,121 against it. Marshall urged passage of the amendment by quoting Byron, "For freedom's battle once begun . . . Though baffled oft, is ever won." The state Constitution was subsequently amended by granting the franchise to Black men, Indian men, and mixed-blooded males over the age of 21. This ended a stormy chapter on the question of equal suffrage that began even before Minnesota became a state in 1858. It began in the summer of 1857 when the constitution conventions of Minnesota met in St. Paul to draw up a state constitution. One of several hotly debated questions of the conventions was whether the right to vote should be extended to all men or only "free White men?" The Democrats framed the debate as a struggle between "White supremacy" and "Negro equality," and accused Republicans of playing politics on behalf of "Negroes" to swell Republican voting ranks. Marshall, on the other hand, said the right to vote should be extended to Black men because it was "just and right." In fact, Marshall was elected on a platform favoring the extension of suffrage, whereas the Democrats opposed it arguing that the immediate enfranchisement of "this enervated and ignorant race" might introduce "in our system an element of disaffection, danger and corruption." Following passage of the suffrage amendment, Blacks in Minnesota jubilantly held a state convention of their own on Jan. 1, 1869 -- the sixth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation -- and listened to an address by Marshall. "In the name of the state of Minnesota, which has relieved itself of the reproach of unjust discrimination against a class of its people, I welcome you to your political enfranchisement," Marshall told the gathering. Although present-day Minnesotans may find it surprising that voters twice turned down the chance to extend voting rights to Black men, Minnesota was one of the few states to enfranchise Blacks and Indians voluntarily. The battle for "Negro suffrage" was won two years before the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted, with its provision that the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged in the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." So viewed in historical context, Minnesota could still be considered a progressive state. -- Beverly Smith Originally published in 1991 in the Session Weekly, a weekly newsmagazine published by the Minnesota House Public Information Office. ***Last Update 8/5/94 (jtt) Last Review 8/5/94 (jtt) ***