Constitution of the State of South Carolina

1895

South Carolina's constitution of 1895 was the product of a convention convened specifically to disenfranchise Black voters in the aftermath of Reconstruction. Designed by the Democratic Party establishment under Governor "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, it introduced literacy tests, poll taxes, and residency requirements that effectively stripped political power from the state's African American majority for the next seven decades. The document replaced the Reconstruction-era constitution of 1868, which had been one of the most progressive governing frameworks in the post-war South. The 1895 constitution has been heavily amended — including after the Civil Rights movement removed its most discriminatory provisions — and remains in force today, a standing reminder of how fundamental law can be wielded as an instrument of exclusion as readily as liberation.