What it means to "Grandfather" some people by Martin Udogie

I first heard this word from Seyi Bickersteth, Managing Partner, at then, Arthur Andersen. It was in the mid-1990s, and a policy had just been introduced to the combined Andersen firm (the consulting arm Andersen Consulting, and the auditors, Arthur Andersen).

Seyi was explaining how a category of staff would have to be “grandfathered” to qualify for the benefits. I thought it was just a nice-sounding jargon, and not a proper word. There was no google then, no Blackberry, no Wikipedia. So, I didn’t bother to look it up anywhere.

But reading my current book, Proofiness, I came across the origin of the word. Here it is.

America used to have a “Poll tax”. You weren’t allowed to vote unless you had paid the poll tax. This tax effectively disenfranchised many eligible African American voters, who could not afford the tax.

But curiously, many white voters were exempted from paying the tax (and therefore allowed to vote) because of a “grandfather clause.” The clause exempted a person from the poll tax if he could prove that his grandfather had the right to vote – which white folks could prove and African Americans, could not, as generations before them had never voted.

Nowadays, a grandfather clause refers to an exemption from a new law based upon prior circumstances.

Warm regards.
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Martin Udogie is the publisher of BOTTOMLINE Newsletter