Peter J. Galie, Professor Emeritus, Canisius University, has published The 1821 Constitutional Convention and the Constitutionalizing of Racial Discrimination in New York as Albany Law Review 87 (2023-2024) 147-1166:
The 1821 New York Constitutional Convention removed property ownership for White males as a condition for voting while adding a requirement that Black voters possess a freehold estate worth $250.00. White males were eligible to vote if they met the following requirements: (i) residence in the state for one year; (ii) residence in the county they were voting in for six months; and, (iii) either, paid property taxation, served in the militia or was a fireman, or labored on the public highways; Black men were eligible only if they possessed the freehold estate mentioned above, and had resided in the state for three years. With this addition, the 1821 Constitution became the first in the state’s history to contain a provision making race a part of its constitutional fabric. This Article examines that decision and the role Martin Van Buren played in the context of the state’s colonial background and constitutional tradition.
Martin Van Buren (NYPL)
--Dan Ernst
