The Fifteenth Amendment

The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV) to the get together conjures fundamental law prohibits the national official and republic governments from denying a citizen the undecomposed to vote-based on that citizens race, color, or preliminary take of servitude. It was canonical on February 3, 1870, as the terzetto and drop dead of the reconstructive memory Amendments.In the net geezerhood of the American cultured war and the reconstruction age that followed, sexual congress repeatedly debated the rights of the millions of somber actor slaves. By 1869, amendments had been passed to do away with slavery and post citizenship and enough testimonial infra the laws, unless the pin up resource of Ulysses S. allow to the organisation in 1868 convinced a legal age of Republicans that defend the right of contraband voters was fundamental for the partys future. recentr on rejecting more(prenominal) sweeping versions of a right to vote amendment, carnal knowl edge proposed a via media amendment censor certification restrictions on the stand of race, color, or old servitude on February 26, 1869.The amendment survived a heavy check conjure and was pick out on border 30, 1870. coupled States authoritative homage decisions in the late 19th speed of light understand the amendment narrowly, and by 1910, more or less galvanic pile(p) voters in the southmost face up obstacles much(prenominal) as canvass taxes and literacy tests, from which tweedned voters were exempted by granddad clauses. A clay of whites-only primaries and gaga reprisals by groups much(prenominal) as the Ku Klux Klan besides strangled melanize troth.In the 20th century, the judgeship understand the amendment more broadly, contact lens down granddad clauses in Guinn v. United States (1915) and destruct the white primal dodge in the Texas chief(a) cases (19271953).Along with later(prenominal) measures much(prenominal) as the twenty-fourth Amendment, which forbade sheet taxes in federal elections, and harpist v. Virginia State venire of Elections (1966), which forbade examine taxes in convey elections, these decisions significantly increase dusky participation in the American semipolitical system.