Prohibition, marking the first time the Constitution had been changed to take away a right, was followed one year later with a vast expansion of rights—the amendment giving women the vote in every state. Universal suffrage had long been blocked by Southern legislators who feared arming Black women with electoral power, even within the harsh restrictions of Jim Crow. But the movement to expand the vote also included people who shared the Klan’s view of using the newly enfranchised to its advantage, since whites had a far easier time at the polls.
