disfranchisement

Cultural  

1. Removal of the franchise, or right to vote.

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Explanation

Disenfranchisement is a state of being without the rights or power you deserve. Restricting people's ability to vote is an example of disenfranchisement. The disenfranchisement of Black Americans has always existed in the U.S. It was a deliberate effort after the end of the Civil War; once Black men gained the legal right to vote, Southern legislators began working to keep that right from them. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ostensibly ended this disenfranchisement, although gerrymandering and other restrictions continue to hamper the right of certain groups to vote. Disenfranchisement comes from enfranchise and its root meaning "set free."

Example Sentences

Understanding the rash of late-19th-century segregation laws, like the rash of disfranchisement laws, means asking questions about who wanted them and why.

From New York Times • Feb. 18, 2019

While the Civil Rights Movement and the subsequent Voting Rights Act of 1965 seemed to disrupt and overturn disfranchisement, the forces of voter suppression refused to rest.

From The Guardian • Oct. 31, 2018

In 1870, all racial disfranchisement was constitutionally forbidden, building on another suggestion made by Lincoln himself in his last public speech, just days before he died.

From Time • Apr. 15, 2015

Evans, Bakker and McLaren are great on questions of homophobia, poverty and sexism; but racism, when it is addressed at all, is largely addressed as a problem of individual attitudes rather than systemic disfranchisement.

From Salon • Dec. 24, 2013

It was a compromise between representation and prescription, on the three principles of disfranchisement, enfranchisement, and extension of the suffrage.

From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Stanton, Henry B.