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Smith v. Allwright

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Case Basics
Docket No.: 
51
Petitioner: 
Smith
Respondent: 
Allwright
Decided By: 
Stone Court (1943-1945)
Opinion: 
321 U.S. 649 (1944)
Argued: 
Wednesday, January 12, 1944
Decided: 
Monday, April 3, 1944
Categories: 
choice of law, race, voting, elections, race discrimination, discrimination
Location No location information present.

Cite this page
The Oyez Project, Smith v. Allwright , 321 U.S. 649 (1944)
available at: (http://oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1943/1943_51)
(last visited Sunday, January 24, 2010).
Facts of the Case: 

A resolution of the Democratic Party of Texas, a group that the Texas Supreme Court had deemed a "voluntary association," allowed only whites to participate in Democratic primary elections. S.S. Allwright was a county election official; he denied Lonnie E. Smith, a black man, the right to vote in the 1940 Texas Democratic primary.

Question: 

Did denying blacks the right to vote in primary elections violate the Fifteenth Amendment?

Conclusion: 

The Court overruled its decision in Grovey v. Townsend (1935) and found the restrictions against blacks unconstitutional. Even though the Democratic Party was a voluntary organization, the fact that Texas statutes governed the selection of county-level party leaders, the party conducted primary elections under state statutory authority, and state courts were given exclusive original jurisdiction over contested elections, guaranteed for blacks the right to vote in primaries. Allwright engaged in state action abridging Smith's right to vote because of his race. A state cannot "permit a private organization to practice racial discrimination" in elections, argued Justice Reed. (The Court's decision in this matter was amended on June 12, 1944.)

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