Simone Lawson
The original U.S. Constitution did not explicitly mention African Americans, nor did it define voting rights for citizens. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, formally ended slavery, and the 14th Amendment, passed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, effectively defining African Americans as equal citizens under the law. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, granted African American men the right to vote, stating that the right to vote could not be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. While these amendments extended certain rights and protections to African Americans, they still faced significant obstacles to full participation in American society, including segregation, literacy tests, and intimidation.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| How African Americans were represented in the original Constitution | African Americans were regarded as 3/5ths of a person in state populations |
| First Amendment to address representation of African Americans | 13th Amendment, passed on January 31, 1865, abolished slavery |
| Subsequent Amendments | 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, defined African Americans as equal citizens under the law |
| 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, granted African American men the right to vote | |
| 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, granted women the right to vote | |
| 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited the use of poll taxes in federal elections | |
| Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolished remaining deterrents to exercising the right to vote and authorized federal supervision of voter registration |
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What You'll Learn
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery
The original U.S. Constitution, in its treatment of slaves as "three-fifths" of a person, did not represent African Americans as fully human. This was a compromise between Southern delegates, who wanted to strengthen the constitutional supports for slavery, and Northern delegates, who wanted to weaken them. The Three-Fifths Compromise, mentioned in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, was the only reference to enslaved persons in the Constitution until 1865.
The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. It was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans. The official text of the amendment is as follows:
> "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
The 13th Amendment was preceded by the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln in 1863, which declared that "all persons held as slaves [...] shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." However, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation as it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in a state of rebellion. Lincoln recognised that a constitutional amendment was necessary to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
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The 14th Amendment defined African Americans as citizens
The US Constitution, ratified in 1788, did not restrict citizenship based on race. However, it only counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person in state populations. The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery but did not address the status of newly freed African Americans. Were they citizens? Did they have the same rights as other Americans?
To resolve these issues, Congress passed the 14th Amendment, which contained key provisions on the definition of citizenship, the protection of civil rights, and the power of the federal government. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, served a revolutionary purpose—to define African Americans as equal citizens under the law. It established the principle of birthright citizenship, meaning anyone born in the US is automatically a citizen. It also amended the three-fifths clause in the Constitution, stating that population counts would be based on the "whole number of persons" in a state—all people would be counted equally.
The 14th Amendment also included provisions relating to voting and representation in Congress. It protected the right to vote for all male citizens aged 21 or older, although it would take the 15th Amendment (ratified in 1870) to ban voting restrictions based on race, and the 19th Amendment (ratified in 1920) for women to secure the right to vote.
The 14th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and sent to the states for ratification. Twenty-two states ratified the amendment within a year, but most southern states refused to ratify an amendment that defined African Americans as equal citizens. Black men and women who attempted to exercise their rights and freedoms faced resistance, violence, and retaliation from white citizens.
The 14th Amendment provided African Americans with a legal basis to challenge discrimination, demand equal rights and protections, and effect change. However, it did not extend the Bill of Rights to the states, and it failed to protect the rights of Black citizens. Citizens petitioned and initiated court cases, and although they did not succeed during Reconstruction, they laid the groundwork for change in the 20th century.
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The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote
The original U.S. Constitution did not define voting rights for citizens, and until 1870, only white men were allowed to vote. The Fifteenth Amendment, passed by Congress and ratified in 1870, granted African American men the right to vote. This was during the Reconstruction Era, when the progressive wing of the Republican Party dominated Congress in the decade following the Civil War. The Amendment states:
> 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.
The 15th Amendment was a significant step in the struggle for equality, but it was not enough to secure voting rights for African Americans. Despite the Amendment, African Americans were still denied the right to vote through state constitutions and laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, "grandfather clauses", and intimidation. The "grandfather clause" was a popular method of disenfranchisement, as it restricted voting rights to men who were allowed to vote or whose ancestors were allowed to vote before the 15th Amendment was ratified.
African Americans exercised their right to vote and held office in many Southern states through the 1880s. However, in the early 1890s, steps were taken to enforce white supremacy, and African Americans lost their political power. This period of disenfranchisement lasted for over fifty years, until President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Congress in 1965 to pass the Voting Rights Act, which abolished all remaining deterrents to exercising the right to vote.
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The 24th Amendment prohibited poll taxes in federal elections
The original US Constitution, ratified in 1788, did not restrict citizenship based on race. However, it only counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person, rather than as full citizens, in state populations. This was amended by the 14th Amendment, which stated that population counts would be based on the "whole number of persons" in a state, and that all people would be counted equally. The 14th Amendment also served to define African Americans as equal citizens under the law.
The 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified on January 23, 1964, prohibits both Congress and the states from requiring the payment of a poll tax or any other tax as a condition for voting in federal elections. The official text of the amendment is as follows:
> The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or any other tax. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Poll taxes were adopted by the Southern states of the former Confederate States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and were used to prevent African Americans and poor whites from voting. The 24th Amendment was proposed by Congress in August 1962, in response to reports of continuing discriminatory voting practices in many Southern states. Despite concerns that all the Southern states would reject the amendment, 38 states ratified it in January 1964.
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, granted African American men the right to vote. However, in the early 1890s, steps were taken to ensure "white supremacy", and African Americans were disenfranchised through literacy tests, "grandfather clauses", and other devices. Poll taxes were one of the many discriminatory methods used to restrict the voting rights of African Americans. Due to the disproportionate levels of poverty among African Americans in the Southern states, many of them, as well as poor whites, were excluded from voting.
The 1937 Supreme Court case of Breedlove v. Suttles held that poll taxes were constitutional. However, a more prominent wave of criticism towards the poll tax grew during the Roosevelt Administration of the 1930s and 1940s. In 1939, a bill to abolish the poll tax in federal elections was passed by the House, but it was unable to defeat a filibuster in the Senate. Anti-Communist sentiments during the Second Red Scare of the 1950s shifted poll taxes to a lower political priority, and the issue was not revisited until the administration of John F. Kennedy.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Congress to pass legislation "which will make it impossible to thwart the 15th Amendment", and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted, abolishing all remaining deterrents to exercising the right to vote and authorizing federal supervision of voter registration where necessary. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that poll taxes for any level of elections were unconstitutional, stating that they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965 enforced voting rights laws
The US Constitution, ratified in 1788, did not restrict citizenship based on race. However, it only counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person, rather than as full citizens, in state populations. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, amended this clause, stating that population counts would be based on the "whole number of persons" in a state—all people would be counted equally. It also protected the right to vote for all male citizens aged 21 or older. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, banned voting restrictions based on race.
Despite these amendments, African Americans continued to face obstacles to voting, especially in the South. In the early 1890s, steps were taken to ensure "white supremacy", including literacy tests for voting, “grandfather clauses" that excluded those whose ancestors had not voted in the 1860s, and other devices to disenfranchise African Americans. In 1896, the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson legalized "separate but equal" facilities for the races, further reducing African Americans to second-class citizenship under the "Jim Crow" segregation system.
In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed to address these continuing discriminatory voting practices in many Southern states. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, it abolished all remaining deterrents to exercising the right to vote and authorized federal supervision of voter registration where necessary. The act outlawed discriminatory voting practices, including literacy tests, poll taxes, and other bureaucratic restrictions used to deny African Americans the right to vote. It also provided for the appointment of federal examiners to register qualified citizens to vote and required covered jurisdictions to obtain "preclearance" from the District Court for the District of Columbia or the US Attorney General before implementing changes to voting practices.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had an immediate impact, with a quarter of a million new Black voters registered by the end of the year, one-third by federal examiners. It was extended and strengthened in 1970, 1975, and 1982, and remains one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in US history.
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Frequently asked questions
No, when the U.S. Constitution was first ratified in 1788, enslaved African Americans were counted as 3/5ths of a person, rather than as full citizens, in state populations.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, amended the 3/5ths clause in the Constitution, stating that population counts would be based on the "whole number of persons" in a state. It also protected the right to vote for all male citizens age 21 or older.
The 14th Amendment did not explicitly grant African Americans the right to vote. This was achieved through the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, which prohibited the federal government and states from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, colour, or previous condition of servitude.
