Fifteenth Amendment

Fifteenth Amendment (1870).This amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares that the right to vote shall not be denied or restricted by the federal or state governments on account of race. The amendment reflected both the egalitarian ideals of Reconstruction and the self‐interest of the Republican party.

Two developments led to the framing of the amendment: the northern state elections of 1867, in which voters rejected black suffrage, and the presidential election of 1868, which signaled future electoral trouble for the Republicans. Having enfranchised southern freedmen in 1867, Republican leaders proposed the enfranchisement of African Americans—most of whom could be counted on to vote Republican—in those northern and border states that still prohibited black voting.

The Republican‐controlled Congress approved the Fifteenth Amendment on 26 February 1869. In the brief but intense ratification struggle in the state legislatures, Democrats opposed and Republicans supported ratification. With the outcome uncertain, a combination of pressure and incentives brought about final ratification on 30 March 1870.

Upon ratification, adult black males in seventeen northern and border states became voters. With racist repression in the South, growing political indifference in the North, and federal inaction, however, most southern and border state blacks lost the franchise.

During the long retreat from egalitarian principles after 1867, federal courts often interpreted the amendment narrowly to deny federal authority to prosecute violations of federal voting rights. From 1941 onward, however, courts began to reverse this trend. The landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 owed its constitutional underpinning to the Fifteenth Amendment.
See also Civil Rights Cases; Civil Rights Legislation; Fourteenth Amendment; Racism.

Bibliography

William Gillette , The Right to Vote: Politics and the Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, 1969.
Ward E.Y. Elliott , The Rise of Guardian Democracy: The Supreme Court's Role in Voting Rights Disputes, 1845–1969, 1974.

William Gillette