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Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

 
Fifteenth Amendment To the United States Constitution

 
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Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
 
 
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The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
 prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color
Colored

Colored is a North American euphemism once widely regarded as a description of black people , and also Native Americans in the United States. It should not be confused with the more recent term person of color, which attempts to describe all "non-white peoples", not just blacks....
 or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery).






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15th Amendment Pg1of1 Ac
15th Amendment Celebration 1870
the First Vote
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
 prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color
Colored

Colored is a North American euphemism once widely regarded as a description of black people , and also Native Americans in the United States. It should not be confused with the more recent term person of color, which attempts to describe all "non-white peoples", not just blacks....
 or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870.

The Fifteenth Amendment is one of the Reconstruction Amendments
Reconstruction Amendments

The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870, the five years immediately following the United States Civi...
.

Text


History

The Fifteenth Amendment is the third of the Reconstruction Amendments
Reconstruction Amendments

The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870, the five years immediately following the United States Civi...
. This amendment prohibits the states and the federal government from using a citizen's race, color or previous status as a slave as a voting qualification. Its basic purpose was to enfranchise former slaves. While some states had permitted the vote to former slaves even before the ratification of the Constitution, this right was rare, not always enforced and often under attack. The North Carolina Supreme Court
North Carolina Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is the North Carolina highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court....
 upheld this right of free men of color to vote; in response, amendments to the North Carolina Constitution removed the right in 1835. Granting free men of color the right of to vote could be seen as giving them the rights of citizens, an argument explicitly made by Justice Curtis's
Benjamin Robbins Curtis

Benjamin Robbins Curtis was an United States Lawyer and Supreme Court of the United States Justice.Curtis was born in 1809 in Watertown, Massachusetts....
 dissent in Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott v. Sandford, , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent Slavery in the United States and held as History of slavery in the United States, or their descendants?whether or not they were slaves?were not legal persons and could never be citizens of the United States, and that the U...
:

The original House and Senate draft of the Amendment said the right to vote and to be a candidate would not be denied or abridged by the States based on race, color or creed. This was eventually omitted due to the desire among many Northern Republicans to leave their own laws limiting black participation in government intact. The Amendment did not establish true universal male suffrage partly because Southern Republicans were afraid to undermine loyalty tests, which the Reconstruction state governments used to limit the influence of ex-Confederates.

The first African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
 to vote after the adoption of this amendment was Thomas Mundy Peterson
Thomas Mundy Peterson

On March 31, 1870, Thomas Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, United States, became the first African-American to vote in an election under the just-enacted provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to the United States Constitution....
, who cast his ballot in a school board election being held in Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 47,303....
 on March 31, 1870. On a per capita and absolute basis, more blacks were elected to political office during the period from 1865 to 1880 than at any other time in American history. Although no state elected a black governor during Reconstruction, a number of state legislatures were effectively under the control of a substantial African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
 caucus. These legislatures brought in programs that are considered part of government's duty now, but at the time were radical, such as universal public education
Public education

Public educatoin is education mandated for or offered to the children of the general public by the government, whether national, regional, or local, provided by an institution of civil government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by taxes....
. They also set aside all racially biased laws, including anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws

Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes interracial sex between White people and members of other races....
 (laws prohibiting interracial marriage
Interracial marriage

Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing Race groups Marriage, often creating multiracial children. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation ....
).

Despite the efforts of groups like the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan is the name of several past and present secret domestic militant organizations in the United States, originating in the southern states and eventually having national scope, that are best known for advocating white supremacy and acting as terrorists while hidden behind conical hats, masks and white robes....
 to intimidate black voters and white Republicans, assurance of federal support for democratically elected southern governments meant that most Republican voters could both vote and rule in confidence. For example, when an all-white mob attempted to take over the interracial government of New Orleans, President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant , was an United States general and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States ....
 sent in federal troops to restore the elected mayor.

However, after the close election of Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was an Politics of the United States, Law of the United States, Military of the United States and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States ....
, in order to mollify the South
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
, he agreed to withdraw federal troops. He also overlooked poll violence in the Deep South
Deep South

The Deep South is a descriptive category of cultural and geographic subregions in the Southern United States. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the antebellum period....
, despite several attempts by the Republicans to pass laws protecting the rights of black voters and to punish intimidation. An example of the unwillingness of the Congress to take any action at this time, is a bill which would only have required incidents of violence at polling places to be publicized failed to be passed. Without the restrictions, voting place violence against blacks and Republicans increased, including instances of murder
Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
. Most of this was done without any interference by law enforcement and often even with their cooperation.

By the 1890s, many Southern states had rigorous voter qualification laws, including literacy test
Literacy test

Literacy Test refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level....
s and poll tax
Poll tax

A poll tax, head tax, or capitation tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corv?e is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax ....
es. Some states even made it difficult to find a place to register to vote.

Proposal and ratification

The Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment on February 26, 1869 and the following states ratified the amendment:
  1. Nevada (March 1, 1869)
  2. West Virginia (March 3, 1869)
  3. Illinois (March 5, 1869)
  4. Louisiana (March 5, 1869)
  5. Michigan (March 5, 1869)
  6. North Carolina (March 5, 1869)
  7. Wisconsin (March 5, 1869)
  8. Maine (March 11, 1869)
  9. Massachusetts (March 12, 1869)
  10. Arkansas (March 15, 1869)
  11. South Carolina (March 15, 1869)
  12. Pennsylvania (March 25, 1869)
  13. New York (April 14, 1869, rescinded on January 5, 1870, rescinded the rescission on March 30, 1870)
  14. Indiana (May 14, 1869)
  15. Connecticut (May 19, 1869)
  16. Florida (June 14, 1869)
  17. New Hampshire (July 1, 1869)
  18. Virginia (October 8, 1869)
  19. Vermont (October 20, 1869)
  20. Alabama (November 16, 1869)
  21. Missouri (January 7, 1870)
  22. Minnesota (January 13, 1870)
  23. Mississippi (January 17, 1870)
  24. Rhode Island (January 18, 1870)
  25. Kansas (January 19, 1870)
  26. Ohio (January 27, 1870, after having rejected it on April 30, 1869)
  27. Georgia (February 2, 1870)
  28. Iowa (February 3, 1870)
Ratification was completed on February 3, 1870. The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:
  1. Nebraska (February 17, 1870)
  2. Texas (February 18, 1870)
  3. New Jersey (February 15, 1871, after having rejected it on February 7, 1870)
  4. Delaware (February 12, 1901, after having rejected it on March 18, 1869)
  5. Oregon (February 24, 1959)
  6. California (April 3, 1962, after having rejected it on January 28, 1870)
  7. Maryland (May 7, 1973, after having rejected it on February 26, 1870)
  8. Kentucky (March 18, 1976, after having rejected it on March 12, 1869)
  9. Tennessee (April 2, 1997, after having rejected it on November 16, 1869)


See also

  • Voting Rights Act
    Voting Rights Act

    The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States....
  • Ballot access
    Ballot access

    Ballot access rules, called nomination rules outside the US, regulate the conditions under which a candidate or political party is either entitled to stand for election or to appear on voters' ballots....


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