The long, racist history of Florida’s now-repealed ban on felons voting

In 1868, Congress had just forced Florida to rewrite its constitution to allow every man the right to vote, but adding thousands of newly eligible black residents to the rolls would abruptly make whites a voting minority. Combined with postwar laws that made it easy to saddle black residents with criminal records, a lifetime voting ban on anyone with a felony conviction legislators knew they could suppress black votes indefinitely.