The African American Vote

Congress passed the 14th amendment. All people born in the United States were given citizenship. This obviously included blacks. The federal government would not let the states selectively say who could or could not be citizens. It also gave the white south an option to allow blacks to vote or lose seats in the federal government. This act did not necessarily give the blacks the right to vote but is did guarantee them “equality before the law regardless of race” (book p.573).

America, unlike the UK, has a written constitution, which has the intention of granting equal rights to all citizens. Under this constitution, slavery was legally abolished in 1865. As compensation during the reconstruction era (1865-1877. History.com). Freed slaves were given a plot of land and a mule so that they could begin to provide for their families and to develop their own economy. Black Americans had been granted the rights to become citizens and Black men the rights to vote. However, in practice very few men of colour exercised this right. Many states, particularly in the southern states in the US altered their state laws in order to exclude non White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASP’s). Some of the tactics employed to exclude Blacks were; literacy tests, the ability to understand complex legal frameworks and a tax payable to vote ( p.31). Some states also asked Black people questions that were unanswerable, such has “how many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?”. It should also be noted that the above tactics also

African-Americans may sometimes wonder at the contradictory facts about their history presented in many standard history texts. These texts state that blacks were given the right to vote in 1870, yet the same texts will acknowledge that this right did not really exist for African-Americans until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Voting was not always fair, especially for colored people. People who were white could vote without problems. Not only did blacks have rights, but Indians couldn't vote. Soon after almost 100 years Native Americans could finally vote.Today everyone has the right to vote no matter what race they are.

Throughout this time, the ranking of freedman was significantly increased, and by 1868; many state legislatures had African American delegates. All of America, as well as the South, had to be rebuilt, and, despite the South's hostile resistance, African-Americans were slowly and gradually becoming part of this nation. The long-awaited citizenship for Blacks was confirmed in 1868, by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. By 1870, the 15th Amendment had been added to the Constitution, which gave blacks the right to vote. The 15th Amendment forbids the states from denying the right to vote to any person on account of race, color, or previous condition of

Up until the year 1870 African Americans could not vote in any election in American. (U.S. Voting Rights). In the past America has been making a lot of changes in our voting system’s equality. In the present, legally African Americans have the same rights as a white man does. In the future the rights will not get any better or worse. Throughout history The African American voting rights have improved to the present day and will stay the same in the near future.

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.

Have you ever thought why many people don’t vote? Some people don’t vote because they feel like their vote doesn’t matter nor will it change things. Others are just too afraid to voice their opinion because they feel like they would get punished for saying it. But people have to realize that their vote actually does matter. Their one little vote can determine certain things. Others should not be afraid to voice their opinion nor speak their mind because people have freedom of speech.

The 15th amendment gave African American men the right to vote by saying that 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." Sadly, African American men wouldn’t be able to exercise this right for almost a whole century. Using literacy tests, poll taxes, and other methods Southern states could prevent African Americans from voting. It took the passing of Voting Rights Act of 1965 before most African Americans in the South could vote. Woman went

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

     Black Americans of today need to register to vote and make use of their voting rights if they want to see a change to the current state of democracy. In the

In the early years of the United States, voting laws were very strict and only a select few people were able to vote. In 1776, only people who owned land were permitted to vote. Most people in this category were white males over the age of 21. This continued for many decades: in 1790 the Naturalization Law passed. It explicitly stated that only “free white” immigrants can become naturalized citizens. This gave only free white people the right to vote- very little progress was being made.

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

Since Southern people were still mad that African Americans were citizens now, could no longer be slaves, and that they may vote freely. So what many states did was enacted disenfranchisement laws that enabled blacks to vote. How they did this was by targeting offenses that were mostly likely being committed by African Americans. Many other people believe that this law was also made since they got rid of the property test so the wealthy people wanted to get rid of lower class voters and did this by enacting disenfranchisement. Even back then people started to form opinions about this and had to be for it and others had to be against it.

Voting allows the voices of the people to be heard. However, this has not always been a privilege for everyone. Voting first happened around 1776. When the right to vote was first given to the people, only white landowners were allowed to vote. By 1788 slaves were counted as ⅗ of a person. The Dred Scott v. Stanford court case ruled that slaves are property and have no rights. “A black man has no rights a white man is bound to respect.” This ruling increased tensions leading into the civil war. This deprived African Americans even more to the right to citizenship. The 15th amendment was ratified in 1870, which granted black males the right to vote. When the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920, all citizens were allowed to vote regardless