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How Did Obama Become President

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Obama: the first black President in American history. How did he become the President of the United States? One thing is for sure, he could not have become President without the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment is a key document that has had a great influence in America throughout the years, and still affects people today. The 15th Amendment disallowed discrimination in voting based on race and came about after the Civil War during the period of Reconstruction and Civil Rights movements, with its immediate impact being major backlash from Southerners and women, but as time went on it lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Obama being elected to the office of President; it has roots in Christianity with passages such as Galatians 3:28 …show more content…

In the same way, blacks rallied behind Obama and were the reason he was elected President. Black voters came out like never before and had a 60.8 percent turnout rate in 2008 (Flippen). Not only that, but 95 percent of the voters who came out to vote voted for Obama and they made up 13 percent of the total votes in the election (NY Times). To contrast this, in 2004 black voters only made up 11 percent of votes and only 88 percent of those voted for the democratic party candidate: John Kerry. In 2016, black voters only made up 12 percent of voters and dropped back down to 88 percent voting for Hillary Clinton (NYTimes). While one or two percent may seem small, it becomes significant when considering the 200 million people registered to vote. The extra percents meant millions of more votes for Obama that gave him the win. If there were no black people voting for Obama, it would be very unlikely that he would be able to win. Without the 15th Amendment, Obama would not have the votes to win the office of President and he would not even be able to hold office at all in the first

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