Constitutional text · 1870

Fifteenth Amendment

Passed by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870, the amendment barred the United States and the states from denying or abridging the right of citizens to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and empowered Congress to enforce it. To many abolitionists and Radical Republicans, it appeared to complete the promise of emancipation by securing the vote for Black men.

“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.”

February 3, 1870

Why it matters

The last of the Reconstruction amendments, it was later evaded through poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries and violence, and its promise was not broadly enforced until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Subjects

voting rights civil rights reconstruction constitution

From the library

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