The 15Th Amendment: Right To Vote For All

The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1870, grants all male citizens the right to vote, regardless of race, skin colour, or previous servitude. This amendment was the third of three amendments adopted during the Reconstruction Era, profoundly altering American society, government, and politics. While this amendment was a significant step forward, it is important to note that in practice, many African Americans still faced barriers to voting due to discriminatory laws and practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests. The ongoing struggle for equal voting rights led to further amendments and legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided federal oversight and abolished remaining deterrents to voting.

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The right to vote for African American men

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1870, granted African American men the right to vote. Before the Civil War, slavery was a dominant institution, and African Americans were regarded as second-class citizens. The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, was ratified in December 1865, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which defined citizenship, was ratified in July 1868. The Fifteenth Amendment was the last of the three Reconstruction Amendments and profoundly altered American society, government, and politics. It specifically prevented federal and state governments from using race or former servitude as a reason to deny citizens the right to vote.

The interpretation of the Fifteenth Amendment by the Supreme Court was relatively narrow during the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The Court emphasized that the amendment did not grant the right to vote but prohibited its restriction based on race. This interpretation led to the rise of "Jim Crow" laws and the disenfranchisement of African American voters in the Southern states. By the 20th century, the majority of African Americans in the South had lost their electoral power.

It wasn't until the 1960s that Black voting rights were partially restored, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided federal oversight of elections in discriminatory jurisdictions. This act banned literacy tests and similar discriminatory practices and created legal remedies for those affected by voting discrimination. The Supreme Court also played a role in upholding the Fifteenth Amendment, ruling in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966) that the amendment gives Congress the power to enforce the right to vote regardless of race or color.

Freedom from racial discrimination

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870, was a significant step towards racial equality and freedom from racial discrimination in the country. The amendment explicitly 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.

This amendment granted all male citizens of the United States, regardless of their race or previous slave status, the right to vote. This was a remarkable achievement, especially considering that slavery was a dominant institution before the Civil War. The right to vote is now considered one of the most important American freedoms.

However, despite the amendment's guarantees, African Americans continued to face significant barriers to exercising their voting rights. In the late nineteenth century, the Democratic Party in the Southern United States enacted "Jim Crow" laws, which included poll taxes, literacy tests, and violent intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, effectively disenfranchising most black voters. These discriminatory practices resulted in African Americans in the South having little to no electoral power by the 20th century.

It wasn't until the 1960s, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that Black voting rights were fully restored. This act provided federal oversight of elections in discriminatory jurisdictions, banned literacy tests and similar discriminatory devices, and created legal remedies for those affected by voting discrimination. The Supreme Court also played a role in upholding the Fifteenth Amendment, striking down discriminatory laws and ensuring that the right to be free from racial discrimination in voting was protected.

The Fifteenth Amendment was a crucial step in the long struggle for racial equality in the United States, and it continues to serve as a foundation for protecting the voting rights of all citizens, regardless of race or colour.

Voting rights for women

The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1870, affirmed that the right to vote "shall not be denied...on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude". This ensured that all men had the right to vote, regardless of their race. However, it did not explicitly address voting rights for women, and the insertion of the word "male" into the Constitution presented new challenges for women's rights activists. This amendment sparked debates and divided the women's rights movement, with some leaders arguing that Black male voting rights should come first, while others insisted that any constitutional amendment that did not grant women's suffrage was unacceptable.

The women's rights movement had gained momentum after the American Civil War, with women playing crucial roles as labourers, nurses, and caretakers. Activists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone advocated for voting rights for women, but their efforts faced setbacks. From 1866 to 1869, every state that held a referendum on women's suffrage rejected the idea. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, stated that all male citizens over 21 had the right to vote, further complicating the fight for women's suffrage.

The 15th Amendment brought divisions within the women's rights movement to the fore. Leaders like Stone and Douglass supported the amendment, arguing that it was "the Negro's hour" and that Black male suffrage should take precedence. They believed that once the 15th Amendment was secured, they could push for a separate amendment for women's voting rights. On the other hand, prominent activists like Stanton and Anthony vehemently opposed any amendment that excluded women's suffrage. Stanton, in particular, held racist views, arguing that African Americans were ignorant of US political customs and laws. She infamously stated that it was "a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see 'Sambo' walk into the kingdom [of civil rights] first."

The National Woman Suffrage Association, founded by Stanton and Anthony, advocated for a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage and took on other political issues such as divorce laws and the temperance movement. Meanwhile, Stone and Julia Ward Howe established the American Woman Suffrage Association, which focused on advocating for state laws enabling women's suffrage while largely refraining from other political issues. Despite these efforts, it wasn't until the 19th Amendment became law that women's voting rights were secured, and even then, systemic racism in the South continued to disenfranchise women of colour for decades.

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Prohibiting poll taxes in federal elections

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, granted the right to vote to all American men, regardless of their race. However, despite this, African Americans in the South faced various discriminatory methods that restricted their voting rights. One of these methods was the poll tax, which required voters to pay a fee to enter polling places and cast their ballots.

The poll tax, along with other measures such as literacy tests and intimidation tactics by the Ku Klux Klan, effectively disenfranchised not only African Americans but also poor whites and other racial minorities. The tax disproportionately affected African Americans due to the higher levels of poverty among them in the Southern states. In response to this issue, civil rights activist Evelyn Thomas Butts filed a lawsuit in federal court in November 1963, challenging the poll tax as an undue financial burden that violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Twenty-fourth Amendment, ratified in 1964, abolished the use of poll taxes in federal elections. It prohibited both Congress and the states from imposing poll taxes or any other taxes as a precondition for voting in federal elections. The official text of the amendment states:

> 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 other tax.

The ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment was a significant step towards ensuring that financial barriers would no longer prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote in federal elections. It is worth noting that the amendment specifically addresses federal elections, and the elimination of poll taxes in state elections was addressed through subsequent legislation and court rulings, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Supreme Court decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections.

Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18

The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was certified in 1870, and it prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous servitude."

The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified on July 1, 1971, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years for all Americans. The text of the amendment states:

> The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The push to lower the voting age began in the 1940s, with Congressional proposals endorsed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1941, Senator Harley Kilgore began advocating for a lowered voting age in the 77th Congress. In 1943 and 1955, the Georgia and Kentucky legislatures approved measures to lower the voting age to 18. In his 1954 State of the Union address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to publicly support lowering the voting age.

During the 1960s, the movement to lower the voting age gained momentum, largely due to the Vietnam War. Many young men who were ineligible to vote were conscripted to fight in the war, lacking any means to influence the government's decision to send them off to risk their lives. A common slogan used by proponents of lowering the voting age was "old enough to fight, old enough to vote." This slogan traced its roots to World War II, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the military draft age to 18.

In 1963, the President's Commission on Registration and Voting Participation encouraged lowering the voting age, and President Lyndon Johnson proposed granting 18-year-olds the right to vote. In 1968, Senator Birch Bayh's subcommittee on constitutional amendments began hearings on extending voting rights to 18-year-olds. In 1970, President Richard Nixon added a provision to lower the voting age in the extensions of the Voting Rights Act. This was challenged in the Supreme Court case of Oregon v. Mitchell, which determined that Congress has the authority to lower the voting age for federal elections but not for state elections.

Despite opposition from some who questioned the maturity and responsibility of 18-year-olds, the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified in 1971, ensuring that young Americans could no longer be denied the right to vote based on their age.

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