South Carolina, whose population was majority black, was a pioneer of vote restriction. The 1882 “Eight Box Law” created a complex ballot that made it nearly impossible for illiterates to exercise the franchise, and since most of the state’s black residents were illiterate, black turnout plummeted. But that wasn’t enough. In 1888, Governor John Richardson declared, “We now have the rule of a minority of 400,000 [whites] over a majority of 600,000 [blacks]….The only thing that stands today between us and their rule is a flimsy statute—the Eight Box Law.” Seven years later, the state introduced
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