Fifteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution - History

History

The Fifteenth Amendment is the third of the Reconstruction Amendments. This amendment prohibits the states and the federal government from using a citizen's race (this applies to all races), color or previous status as a slave as a voting qualification. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld this right of free men of color to vote; in response, amendments to the North Carolina Constitution removed the right in 1835. Granting free men of color the right to vote could be seen as giving them the rights of citizens, an argument explicitly made by Justice Curtis's dissent in Dred Scott v. Sandford:

Of this there can be no doubt. At the time of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, all free native-born inhabitants of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina, though descended from African slaves, were not only citizens of those States, but such of them as had the other necessary qualifications possessed the franchise of electors, on equal terms with other citizens.

Both the final House and Senate versions of the amendment broadly protected the right of citizens to vote and to hold office. The final House version read:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged by any State on the account of race, color, nativity, property, creed or previous condition of servitude.

Likewise, the final Senate version read:

No discrimination in the exercise by any citizen of the United States of the elective franchise, or in the privilege of holding office, shall in any State be based upon race, color or previous condition of said citizen or his ancestors.

However, both versions of the amendment posed serious challenges in being ratified by three-fourths of the states. A handful of states still required voters and candidates to be Christian. Southern Republicans saw a value in continuing loyalty tests, which the Reconstruction state governments used to limit the influence of ex-Confederates; and Democrats in some Northern and Western states wanted to continue to be able to disenfranchise non-native Irish and Chinese.

To increase chances of ratification, the amendment was revised in a conference committee to remove any reference to holding office and only prohibited discrimination based on race, color or previous condition of servitude. Yet, despite these changes, ratification of the amendment was still in some doubt.

Virginia, Mississippi, Texas and Georgia, were required to ratify the amendment as a precondition for having congressional representation. Nevada ratified the amendment, but only after being reassured by Senator William Morris Stewart that the amendment would not preclude prohibiting the Chinese and Irish immigrants from voting. California and Oregon both opposed the measure out of fear of Chinese immigrants, New York initially ratified the amendment, but legislators later attempted to rescind the ratification, a controversial decision that might have resulted in a court challenge, but for the fact that on March 30, 1870, enough states had ratified the amendment for it to become part of the Constitution.

Thomas Mundy Peterson was the first African American to vote after the amendment's adoption. Peterson cast his ballot in an election over whether to revise the city of Perth Amboy's charter or abandon it for a township form of government. His vote was cast at City Hall in Perth Amboy, New Jersey on March 31, 1870. On a per capita and absolute basis, more blacks were elected to public office during the period from 1865 to 1880 than at any other time in American history including a number of state legislatures which were effectively under the control of a strong African American caucus. These legislatures brought in programs that are considered part of government's role now, but at the time were radical, such as universal public education. They also set all racially biased laws aside, including anti-miscegenation laws (laws prohibiting interracial marriage).

Despite the efforts of groups like the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate black voters and white Republicans, assurance of federal support for democratically elected southern governments meant that most Republican voters could both vote and rule in confidence. For example, an all-white mob in the Battle of Liberty Place attempted to take over the interracial government of New Orleans. President Ulysses S. Grant sent in federal troops to restore the elected mayor.

However, in order to appease the South after his close election, Rutherford B. Hayes agreed to withdraw federal troops. He also overlooked rampant fraud and electoral violence in the Deep South, despite several attempts by Republicans to pass laws protecting the rights of black voters and to punish intimidation. Without the restrictions, voting place violence against blacks and Republicans increased, including instances of murder. Most of this was done without any intervention by, and often with the cooperation of, law enforcement.

By the 1890s, many Southern states had strict voter eligibility laws, including literacy tests and poll taxes. Some states even made it difficult to find a place to register to vote. Upon the adoption of the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1962, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections in 1966, all poll taxes and literacy tests were prohibited in all elections.