Understanding the Legacy of the Fifteenth Amendment: Victories and Limitations in the Fight for Civil Rights

Fifteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1870 to extend suffrage to African Americans.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870. It prohibits federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s ‘race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’ This amendment was adopted to address racial discrimination and to ensure that African American men had the right to vote.

The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment was a significant victory for the Republican Party, which had been instrumental in its adoption. However, although it granted suffrage for African American men, it did not immediately guarantee the right to vote for all African Americans. States found ways to circumvent the law by implementing voter suppression tactics such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and other discriminatory means of exclusion.

The Fifteenth Amendment did not address voting rights for women, which would take another 50 years with the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Despite these limitations, the Fifteenth Amendment marks an important moment in the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the United States.

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