Passage 2 excerpt from United States Supreme Court Decision in Smith v. Allwright (1943)
Lonnie E. Smith, an African American from Texas, sued to overturn a 1923 state law declaring that only white citizens could vote in Texas's
Democratic Party primary elections. Lower courts had ruled that political parties were private organizations and could make their own rules. The
Supreme Court's landmark decision held that Texas's all-white Democratic Party primaries were unconstitutional
The United States is a constitutional democracy. Its organic law grants to all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without
restriction by any state because of race. This grant to the people of the opportunity for choice is not to be nullified by a state through casting its
electoral process in a form which permits a private organization to practice racial discrimination in the election. Constitutional rights would be
of little value if they could be thus indirectly denied.