The Constitution promulgated on 24 February 1891 created the republican framework but excluded illiterate people and beggars from voting. The text did not name race as a voting criterion, yet the educational exclusion operated in a society where slavery had only recently ended and Black Brazilians had been systematically denied schooling. Reading the rule against that history shows how formally universal institutions could reproduce unequal political power without explicitly naming race.
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Which group did the 1891 Constitution exclude from voting?
The text excluded illiterate people and beggars. Because slavery had recently ended and Black people were denied schooling, the rule had racially unequal effects.
The 1891 Constitution explicitly named Black people as the only group barred from voting.
It excluded illiterate people and beggars in race-neutral wording; this had unequal effects in a post-slavery society.