When was the 15th amendment established

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Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help. The 15th Amendment to the U. Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring 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.

Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans.

It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote. Search this Guide Search. And in , 11 of the 21 Northern states did not allow blacks to vote in elections. Most of the border states, where one-sixth of the nation's black population resided, also refused to allow blacks to vote.

Republicans' answer to the problem of the black vote was to add a Constitutional amendment that guaranteed black suffrage in all states, and no matter which party controlled the government. Congress spent the days between Grant's election and his inauguration drafting this new amendment, which would be the 15th added to the Constitution.

The writers of the Fifteenth Amendment produced three different versions of the document. The first of these prohibited states from denying citizens the vote because of their race, color, or the previous experience of being a slave. The second version prevented states from denying the vote to anyone based on literacy, property, or the circumstances of their birth. The third version stated plainly and directly that all male citizens who were 21 or older had the right to vote.

Determined to pass the amendment, Congress ultimately accepted the first and most moderate of the versions as the one presented for a vote. This took some wrangling in the halls of Congress, however. Many Congressmen felt that the first version did not go far enough, and that it left too many loopholes. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment on February 26, But some states resisted ratification. At one point, the ratification count stood at 17 Republican states approving the amendment and four Democratic states rejecting it.