15th Amendment Ratified 156 Years Ago

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified 150 years ago. 

Fortieth Congress of the United States of America;

At the third Session, Begun and held at the city of Washington, on Monday, the seventh day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.

A Resolution Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring) that the following article be proposed to the legislature of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:

Article XV.

Section 1. 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—

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, abolished all remaining deterrents to exercising the right to vote and authorized federal supervision of voter registration where necessary.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the act involving federal oversight of voting rules in nine states.

15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870) | National Archives

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also called the Snyder Act, was passed by Congress in 1924 and admitted Native Americans born in the U.S. to full U.S. citizenship. Even with the passing of that citizenship bill, Native Americans were often prevented from participating in elections, because the Constitution left it up to the states to decide who has the right to vote.  Native American Voting Rights | Voters and Voting Rights | Presidential Elections and Voting in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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