Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution makes it illegal for federal and state governments to restrict voting rights based on a citizen's race or color. Ratified (or approved) in 1870, it was the last constitutional amendment adopted during the Reconstruction era after the end of the American Civil War (1861–65).

The politics of equal rights

The Reconstruction Era was a time when the states of the former Confederate States of America rejoined the Union of the United States of America. Congress proposed three constitutional amendments during this time. The Thirteenth Amendment , which the states had ratified by the end of 1865, made slavery illegal. The Fourteenth Amendment , ratified in 1868, defined citizenship in America and made it illegal for states to deny certain rights to their citizens.

The Fourteenth Amendment did not address the right to vote. Whether newly freed slaves and other African Americans would be allowed to vote was a controversial topic in America. African Americans wanted the right to vote. Among white Americans, however, there was not widespread political support for the voting rights of African Americans, even in the North. Many state constitutions excluded African Americans from voting.

The presidential and congressional elections of 1868 helped to change the political situation. African Americans who were allowed to vote tended to support the Republican Party , which had been the party of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; served 1861–65), who was called the Great Emancipator. With support from African Americans, Republican Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885; served 1869–77), the famous Union general of the Civil War, won the presidential election of 1868 by a slim margin. In the congressional elections, Republicans lost some seats in Congress. These results motivated the Republican Party to fight for voting rights for African Americans to improve election results for the party in the future.

Crafting the Fifteenth Amendment

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican George S. Boutwell (1818–1905) of Massachusetts proposed an amendment to make it illegal for governments to deny the right to vote by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The House approved the idea in January 1869.

Meanwhile in the U.S. Senate, Republican William M. Stewart (1827–1909) of Nevada proposed an amendment that would have protected the right to hold office as well as the right to vote. Henry Wilson (1812–1875) of Massachusetts made a different proposal that would also outlaw voting restrictions based on birthplace, property holdings, education, or religious belief. The Senate ultimately approved Stewart's idea.

On February 24, 1869, the House and Senate formed a conference committee to consider their two proposals. The committee proposed an amendment similar to the one originally introduced by Senator Stewart but without protection for holding office. The House approved the proposal on February 25, and the Senate approved it on February 26, officially offering the Fifteenth Amendment to the nation.

In his first inaugural address in March 1869, President Grant supported the Fifteenth Amendment. To become law, the amendment had to be ratified by at least three-fourths of the states. Not only did Republicans control state legislatures in the North, but they also controlled state legislatures in the South because, from Congress, they controlled the process of Reconstruction. In April 1869, Congress passed a law that required Mississippi , Texas , and Virginia to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment in order to be readmitted to the Union.

By February 1870, twenty-nine states, which equaled the three-fourths requirement, ratified the Fifteenth Amendment. Congress declared the ratification the following month.

Voting rights denied

Despite the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, states that wanted to deny voting rights to African Americans found ways to do so. Poll taxes made it impossible for poor African Americans to afford to vote. Literacy tests blocked uneducated African Americans from voting. These laws blocked some white Americans from voting too, but they were most often enforced only against African Americans.

The Text of the Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution states:

Section 1. 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.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The U.S. Supreme Court found that poll taxes and literacy tests did not violate any constitutional amendments. As a result, African Americans did not truly have widespread voting rights for over a century after the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified. That began to change in the 1960s. The Twenty-fourth Amendment made poll taxes illegal for federal elections. With the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Congress finally began to enforce the true meaning and spirit of the Fifteenth Amendment.