15th+Amendment



The Fifteenth Amendment

What is the The 15th Amendment? The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude Fifteenth Amendment. This Amendment matter today because anyone can vote no matter who you are, as long as you are a citizen.

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The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African Americans the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

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This Amendment was the last of the "Reconstruction Amendments" to be adopted. It was designed to prohibit discrimination against voters on the basis on race or previous condition of servitude. Previously, the states had had full responsibility for determining voter qualifications. Reasons for supporting the amendment are not immediately evident, but they went far beyond an idealistic desire to spread the ideas of democracy to former slaves. .

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