WGN9 Black History Month: The Legacy of Citizenship Schools
Interview with Elaine Weiss
by Micah Materre & Tyra Martin
Posted: Feb 18, 2026 / 09:50 PM CST
In 1870, five years after emancipation, Black men received the right to vote – on paper. But in practice, it wasn’t quite that easy.
There were literacy tests, violence, intimidation, and poll taxes, a charge applied to African Americans and often poor whites. It was all legal as a way to dissuade access to the ballot box.
It continued well into the 1950s, that’s when a community organizer in South Carolina began a program to empower the electorate with education.
He called them Citizenship Schools.