The 15th Amendment The 15th Amendment was written by George Washington Julian. This amendment was passed on February 26, 1869 and was ratified February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment was very significant to many Americans of different races because it changed their lives forever by allowing them to vote. “The present difficulty, in bringing all parts of the United States to a happy unity and love of country grows out of the prejudice to color. The prejudice is a senseless one, but it exists,” said U.S. Grant, 1869. The 15th Amendment states that “The right of the 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 gave African Americans the right to vote. The amendment seemed to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans. The 15th Amendment is also categorized as one of the three constitutional amendments. In the beginning thirty-seven states ratified the 15th Amendment. The first of these states to ratify the 15th Amendment was Nevada. To disenfranchise African Americans, devices were written into the constitutions of former confederate states. In 1869, when the New Year began, the republicans were anxious to introduce a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the black man’s right to vote. Congress considered the amendment that was proposed for two months. When congress approved a compromise, the amendment did not specifically mention the black man. The struggle for and against ratification hung on what blacks and other political interests would do. The Republican-dominated Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act. This act divided the South into five military districts and outlining how ... ... middle of paper ... ...r right to vote. Social and economic segregation were added to the black American’s loss of political power. In some cases, to keep white supremacy, a group called “Ku Klux Klan” would intimidate black males who had voted or who tried to vote. The Ku Klux Klan along with other groups would often burn their homes, churches, and schools down. Some even resorted to murder. A number of these blacks were killed while attempting to defend their right to vote. To the African American community the 15th amendment was the most important amendment to the constitution. The 15th Amendment was made to provide every man, no matter what color he was, the right to vote. This made every man equal, although not all were treated that way. The 15th Amendment was very significant to many Americans of different races. This Amendment changed their lives forever by allowing them to vote.
Additionally, the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed blacks the right to vote, but the South found ways to get around this amendment.
They passed the Reconstruction Act, which was the desperate act to establish newly freed slaves. The African Americans were only reconsidered for their voting right after the Republican majority congress implementing of radical Reconstruction plan. Despite the congress trying to provide equal rights among the freed slaves, southern states other hand was equally reluctant. Congress hardened on Confederate states to implement the mandatory including of the African American in the election process, guaranteeing their voting rights. “Congressional Reconstruction embodied the most sweeping peacetime legislation in American history to that point. It sought to ensure that freed slaves could participate in the creating of new state governments in the former Confederacy” (Shi and Tindall 591). Congress was desperate to provide political rights to freed slaves. As a result of that, they passed the military Reconstruction Act. The military Reconstruction Act guaranteed the right to vote for the African American make, encouraging them to participate in conventions. “The South Carolina constitutional convention -which included 58 men who were once enslaved” (Hillstrom 55). Many states have started eliminating discrimination against freed slaves, and providing equal rights as every white citizen. As more and more state law was more soft towards them, many African American populations were engaging in the election process electing their own people to represent them. “…every former Confederate state elected at least some black delegates, and most states elected African Americans in about the same proportion as their population. A few states even elected a majority if black delegates” (Hillstrom 55). Although, many states were electing African Americans, there were still wide discrimination against elected black officials, in which case Congress has to provide
Finally the 15th Amendment was made in 1870 to assure that every person in the US had the right to vote and no one could take that right away as a result of race, color or because citizens used to be slaves.
The 15th Amendment was an law added to the United States Constitution in 1870 that gave citizens the right to vote no matter their race, skin color, or previous conditions of servitude. This specifically applied to African American males who, though technically were citizens under the 14th amendment, were still being oppressed and restricted from voting. According to Angela Davis in her text, while some feminist activists in the 19th century supported this amendment, others were adamantly opposed to it. These activists were both males and females and many of them had been or were distinguished figures in the abolitionist movement. Supporters argued that African American men had as much of a right as anyone to vote and shouldn 't be denied that right simply because women were, while antagonists argued that until women
Sixteenth Amendment- Authorization of an Income Tax – Progressives thought this would slow down the rising wealth of the richest Americans by using a sliding or progressive scale where the wealthier would pay more into the system. In 1907, Roosevelt supported the tax but it took two years until his Successor, Taft endorsed the constitutional amendment for the tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified by the states in 1913. The origin of the income tax came William J Bryan in 1894 to help redistribute wealth and then from Roosevelt and his dedication to reform of corporations. I agree with an income tax to pay for all of our government systems and departments, but I believe there was a misfire with “redistributing wealth.” The redistribution is seen in welfare systems whereby individuals receive money to live. This is meant to be a temporary assistance, but sadly, most that are in the system are stuck due to lack of assistance in learning how to escape poverty. There are a lot of government funded programs, but there is no general help system to help lift people up and stay up, so there continues a cycle of
...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are the amendments adopted to the United States Constitution after the Civil War. In succession, these amendments were adopted to the Constitution.
Following the victory of the North over the South in the civil war, Black Americans were given independence. This led to court rulings such as the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment, which granted all citizens equality before the law and stated that, the ‘right to vote should not be denied ... on account of race’. However, in practice these Amendments were not upheld, there were no measures in place to implement these rulings and no prevention of the ill treatment of Black Americans. Due to these new rulings, De Facto segregation increased especially with the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Also, in the South although the 15th Amendment gave everyone the right to vote, Jim Crow laws were put in place to deliberately prevent Black Americans from voting. Black Americans had differing views on how to deal with their situation, while some felt it was best to accept the status quo, others wanted to fight for equal rights but disagreed on whether they should integrate with whites or remain separate.
The nineteenth amendment has changed the way women were treated and looked upon.There are many ways the nineteenth Amendment has changed in a bad was, but most of them have made a positive impact. Some people went along with the 19th amendment but some people didn’t think it was a good idea. Some people don’t know what or how the 19th amendment changed positively for women. But this paper is gonna show you all the ways it has positively changed the way people view and act towards women.
African Americans had an active participation during the Reconstruction era and worked hard to achieve rights that they deserved. African Americans acquired different roles, both as individuals and in groups to achieve their goals. One very important role of the African Americans was participation in voting during elections. After the 15Th amendment was passed in 1870 voting was not restricted by race. With this newfound voting power African Americans could control the future of their country. Thanks to this, other rights could now be gained through democratic election. Another role was the African American leaders that represented
In 1866 Congress passed the 14th and 15th amendments because the south was not looking out for the better intreates of the blacks. At this time reconstruction had began. Around the time reconstruction had began , most black people felt that they did not have to work in the fields or work at hard labor jobs. So they started electing other black man into office so that they could have rights and voice in the government. Also these officals helped with getting schools and education for the black population.
...n of the 15th amendment. The 15th amendment provided a ray of hope to ex-slaves and their desire for equal rights in a racially unequal country. However, because of its passing, the 15th amendment also spurred racial sentiments even more then before 1870. Because of the new amendment, many whites saw there positions of power being threatened. What seemed at first a new found sense of belonging, quickly transformed to an increased sense of alienation and political pressure However, political cartoons directly after the ratification seem to side step the issue of disenfranchisement of black voters. While many show the new freedoms enjoy by black citizens, few show depictions of white supremacist group coercing black citizens. It would not be until almost one hundred years after the 15th amendment that this political pressure would be relieved from black voters.
After the American Civil War (1861-1865), the United States entered a stage of reconstruction where many southern states passed poll taxes that appeared to be merely another source of revenue, when in actuality, its purpose was to prevent African Americans from voting (Carson & Bonk, 15). In attempts of solving this issue, the fifteenth amendment was passed, which declared the right to vote to male citizens of any color. The fifteenth amendment, however, did not stop southern state legislators to find other ways to prevent African Americans as well as other minorities from voting. In addition to making citizens have to pay in order to vote, southern states also adapted literacy tests (Carson & Bonk, 15). In order to vote, citizens had to take literacy tests and obtain the results that identified them as “literate” enough to vote. Although the literacy tests gravely affected African Americans, it also affected woman and people of other ethnicities with poor education denying them the right to vote (Carson & Bonk, 15). By oppressing minorities and denying them the right to vote, the obvious outcome was that wealthy candidates who ran for
Black Americans first received freedom from slavery in 1865, and the right to vote in 1870, when the 15th Amendment was established. Why then were they still discriminated against and not truly given the right to vote until 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed. To this there may not be an answer (Lieda).