Prison Index Fact Sheet: Disenfranchisement

February 1, 2003

African-Americans barred from the ballot by "reason" of criminal conviction, methods of disenfranchisement, history

Felon Disenfranchisement: Jim Crow Redux

African-Americans barred from the ballot by "reason" of criminal conviction

Percent of African-American men disenfranchised (not allowed to vote, temporarily or permanently) by a felony conviction: 13.1%
Percent of all voting age Americans disenfranchised by reason of a felony conviction: 2.28%
Number of states that disenfranchise more than 10% of their African-American population: 16

Each state picks its own method of disenfranchisement

Number of states that deny the vote, for life, to all ex-offenders in their state who have completed their sentences: 8
Number of states that deny the vote to some or all of their citizens who have completed their sentences: 15
Number of states that disenfranchise prisoners convicted of a felony: 48
Number of states that disenfranchise felony probationers: 29
Number of states that disenfranchise felons on parole: 33

History

Year the Civil War ends, and the states of the former Confederacy put under military rule: 1865
Number of African-Americans elected to state legislatures in states of the former Confederacy, 1872: 324
Year federal troops left the South and Reconstruction ends: 1877
Year Mississippi passes constitution disenfranchising only citizens convicted of crimes thought more likely to be committed by African-Americans: 1890
Number of African-Americans elected to state legislatures in states of the former Confederacy, 1900: 0
Year a federal court ruled that felon disenfranchisement does not bear “the taint of historically-rooted racial discrimination”: 1985

Today