The Influence Of Voting

The Fifteenth Amendment gave black males over the age of 21 the right to vote. However, southern states set up poll taxes and literacy test in order to keep most blacks from voting. In order to keep the white votes they set up the grandfather clause, which allowed the seventy-five percent of the poor illiterate white people to still vote if they were the son or grandson of someone who was eligible to vote before 1867.

Mid-term Essay Chapter XV: Black Voters: I found this chapter very interesting because of the Voting Rights Act Movement, the Civil War (1861-65) and the 15th Amendment passed in 1870. The fifteenth amendment forbade each of the states from denying black male citizens of the United States the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Officials had even told black voters that they had the date and time wrong. Black voters were often forced to take literacy tests, which they undoubtedly failed. The most outrageous way of refusing black males the right to vote was that officials in the Southern states had been known to force black voters to “recite the entire Constitution.”

This amendment was created to remove all doubt about the Civil Rights Acts in 1866, and it also included African Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870 to give African American males the right to vote, which no one could bribe or make someone not vote because of their race. These amendments had brought attention to African Americans, and their rights as citizens of the United States. These rights sparked a feeling of importance within their community as if things were starting to change for the better, even though they had face more obstacles due to white supremacy groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, horrified at the thought of being equal to African Americans.8 However, as more and more freed slaves start to register to vote, more black individuals became involved in politics. Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels were African Americans that served in the U.S Senate and Frederick Douglas was a major figure in the abolitionist movement.9 The first black institutions were also built in the South creating a solid foundation for the future for African-Americans in

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I’m not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us [African Americans]” –John Lewis. Within 100 years, African Americans overcame many obstacles such as paying poll taxes, passing multiple tests, and violence to be able to vote. They had to pay taxes, such as poll taxes. They also had to pass multiple tests, such as the Property and Literacy tests. Violence was also an obstacle African Americans had to face in order to vote.

The South was still very skeptical with allowing the freedmen the right to vote, even though they had lost their initial argument involving slavery. The South waned to maintain their sense of superiority over those of color through the withholding of the right to vote. However, eventually in February of 1870 the amendment was ratified and the right to vote was given. The Fifteenth Amendment accounts for the ability to vote and not be denied based on a person’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. The ability to vote was one of the first ways that African Americans were truly influential on state and federal legislature.

Many people did not choose to follow the 15th Amendment and they would set certain restrictions on African Americans to keep them from exercising their basic right to vote. Things like the grandfather clause, poll tax, and literacy test were created to help prevent them from voting. The grandfather clause stated only those whose grandfathers voted in 1867 election were able to vote. African Americans weren’t allowed the right to vote until 1870, which meant none of them could vote. The poll tax was a tax that said you had to pay a fee to be able to vote and since most African Americans were poor so they were unable to pay.

Though the 15th amendment (passed in 1870) allowed for these men to exercise their right to vote, many were still unable to do so. “White locals and state officials systematically kept blacks from voting through formal methods, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, and through

Before the Civil War, there were no federal laws to protect voting rights. Only white males had the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was established which stated “Specifically that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on the basis of race, or previous condition of servitude” (Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws). This amendment gives all Americans the right to be a voice of change for the people by electing officials who will make a difference in their communities. Unfortunately, one mistake can cause you to lose this right forever. As stated by Eric H. Holder, JD, US Attorney General, in his Feb. 11, 2014, speech;

Voter ID Laws, now present in some form or another in thirty states, require individuals to show government-issued identification in order to cast a ballot on Election Day. The debate over the need for such laws has never been more important. Voter ID laws were brought to the forefront of American politics in the most recent presidential election as a result of President Elect Donald Trump’s insistence that the election process in America is riddled with wide-spread voter fraud. His claims of a “rigged election” were printed, broadcast, and proliferated through social media for the majority of his campaign. Such claims, if factual, should certainly be immediately rectified. The United States is built on the integrity of its election process and maintaining that integrity is paramount. The issue at hand is: Are these claims of widespread voter fraud fact or fiction? The key driver in the debate over Voter ID laws is whether or not such laws are intended to prevent voter fraud or whether the laws themselves are a form of government-endorsed fraud intended to suppress the vote of specific populations. The fact remains that neither the President Elect nor the states implementing Voter ID laws have been able to produce evidence of election rigging or widespread voter fraud. As such, without evidence of the need for the supposed protection from fraud that these laws are intended to provide, we can only conclude that such laws are not

In the year 1870 the 15th amendment was passed. The fithteenth amendemt reads “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” (Mcneese, Tim). But even though this was passed blacks still saw a problem voting. America started the Jim

The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the government from denying a citizen's right to vote due to a specific race. With which the Congress will have the power by correct legislation to enforce this amendment. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment on February 26, 1869. Most states didn’t ratify the amendment right away but after a years time three-fourths of the necessary states ratified it. The Fifteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution in March 1870. During the period of Reconstruction, the Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress. This section was a huge success for African Americans and citizens of other races. In the early years of Reconstruction, around 1865, white Americans were debating whether suffrage should be given to

The Passing of the 15th amendment in 1868 did give black men the right to vote. They were able to vote but were not permitted because they were blocked at the poles with threats of violence and death. The violence and intimidation of the Ku Klux Klan had a lot to do with the blocking of the blacks at the voting polls.

The United States first began to deal with the issue of voter suppression during the Reconstruction. During Reconstruction freed slaves earned their right to vote and hold office through the fifteenth amendment in 1870. In 1877, Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, began to impose laws that were designed to suppress the African American vote or better known as Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow voting laws required the freedmen to pass literacy tests that they were unable to pass because of no formal education because of their status of slaves. Many states created poll taxes, which many poor Americans, white and black, were unable to pay. Many precincts made their voting precincts “white only” so that blacks would have nowhere to cast their votes. The Jim Crow voter suppression tactics were so successful that only three percent of African Americans in the south were registered to vote in 1940. Although African American males were given the right to vote in

After the civil war there were three Reconstruction Amendments that permitted black men to vote. The 13th Amendment (1865) prohibits slavery, the 14th Amendment (1868) grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States, and awards identical protection, and the 15th Amendment (1870) that all men are identical regardless of race, color or earlier condition of bondage. (www.senate.gov) After Reconstruction ended in 1877 enforcement of these laws became inconsistent, and in 1894, Congress canceled most of their requirements. (www.supreme.justia.com) Southern states generally sought to disenfranchise racial minorities for the period of and after Reconstruction From 1868 to 1888, electoral scams and violence throughout the South blocked

The Fifteenth Amendment granted black men to vote. Put emphasis on men because at this time women still couldn't vote.This amendment would not be fully followed until almost a century. What the government did was that they made a literacy test so difficult that no slave could pass because they had no education. So no blacks could vote really for a long time. So to loop their loophole that made a rule called the Grandfather Clause. This made if your grandfather could vote you did not have to take the literacy test. So every white person's grandfather could vote since they lived in england. So this rule did not apply to blacks since their grandfathers were black and could not vote. One of the main reasons that they made this rule is because