Policy • History • ImpactPromise Tracker
Browse tracked promise records across presidents. The default view prioritizes promises with direct or meaningful downstream Black-community impact, with an option to show all records.
Filter by president, status, or topic, or search across titles, summaries, and promise text. Relevance reflects the degree to which a promise is tied to Black-community outcomes.
94 Promise Tracker records
In Guinn v. United States, the Supreme Court held that Oklahoma's grandfather-clause voting provision violated the Fifteenth Amendment, invalidating that mechanism of racial disfranchisement while recognizing that literacy tests, considered on their own, remained within state power.
In Giles v. Harris, the Supreme Court declined to grant equitable relief to Black plaintiffs challenging Alabama's voter-registration regime, leaving in place a system they alleged was being used to exclude Black voters through discriminatory registration practices.
McKinley is tracked as delivered because, during his presidency, the federal constitutional order permitted discriminatory voting restrictions to remain in force, reinforcing state disfranchisement systems without implying that McKinley personally caused the Court's decision.
Cleveland is tracked as delivered because, during his presidency, the federal constitutional order accepted "separate but equal" as a valid framework, strengthening the legal foundation for segregation without implying that Cleveland personally authored the Court's ruling.
Benjamin Harrison
Protect Black voting rights through the Lodge Elections BillHarrison is tracked as failed because, although he supported stronger federal voting-rights protection, the Lodge Elections Bill did not become law, leaving Black voters without the renewed national enforcement framework the administration had backed.
Arthur is tracked as delivered because his administration accepted a reduced federal civil-rights posture after the Court invalidated key protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, reinforcing the broader national retreat from Reconstruction-era enforcement without implying that Arthur caused the ruling itself.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Withdraw federal troops and accept Southern home ruleHayes is tracked as delivered because his administration withdrew federal troops from key Southern states in 1877, accelerating the collapse of Reconstruction-era protection and leaving Black citizens more exposed to disenfranchisement, intimidation, and violent white supremacist restoration.
Grant is tracked as failed because the administration's broader commitment to protect Black citizenship and voting rights could no longer be enforced with the same force after Cruikshank narrowed federal authority, leaving Black communities more vulnerable to organized violence and intimidation.
Ulysses S. Grant
Sign the Civil Rights Act of 1875Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, extending federal civil-rights protection into public accommodations even though later judicial decisions weakened its practical reach.
Ulysses S. Grant
Suppress Ku Klux Klan violence and protect Black voting rightsGrant backed and used federal enforcement powers against Ku Klux Klan violence, helping produce a clear period of federal protection for Black voting rights even though later retrenchment reversed much of that progress.
