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15 Amendment Pros And Cons

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The fifteen amendment of the United States Constitution prohibit the federal and state government from denying the citizens the right to vote, based on that citizen’s race, color or previous condition of servitude. The fifteen Amendments finally gave the African American the right to vote, but also allowed them to be able to elect into public office. Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promises if the 15 amendment would not fully realized for almost a century, thought the used of poll taxes, literacy test and other means. Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African American. Current controversies over the right to vote can be divided into two types of claims. The first involves the ability to get to the ballot box and cast a vote: these are …show more content…

The thirteen amendment to the constitution was passed January 31, 1865 and ratified by the state on December 6, 1865, in which declare that slavery or involuntary servitude should not exist in the United States (Schleicher, 1998) while in the fourteen amendment was ratified on July9, 1868 and granted citizenship to “ all persons born on naturalized in the United States” including slaves, these amendment expanded the protection of civil right to all Americans and is named in more litigations than any other amendment(Hudson, 2002). Finally third and last of the reconstruction amendments, in which was not fully realized in our country until a century later. The fifteen amendment provided suffrage for black men, declaring that “The right of citizen of the United States to vote shall not be denied for abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude’ African were deterred from exercising their right to vote thought a measures like the poll taxes and literacy test (William, February 27, 18690) The U.S. has a long history of discriminatory voting laws.

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The fourteenth amendment states that, “ that states may not deny any person life, liberty or property without due process of law, and says that a state may not deny a person the equal protection of the law.” This amendment was put into place as a reconstruction amendment like the thirteenth to provide citizenship to all people born in the United States and recently freed slaves. The fifteenth amendment states, “ 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.” This amendment served as the third and last reconstruction amendment and

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Sophia Pienciak Mr. Kotlewski Period 8 17 January 2017 Latter Amendments Essay Martha Griffiths a lawyer once said, “This amendment [the Equal Rights Amendment], if passed, would be like a beacon which should awaken nine sleeping Rip Van Winkle 's to the fact that the twentieth century is passing into history.” A summary of the twenty-fourth amendment is banning poll taxes. That means that in the 1800’s to 1900’s they used to make you pay to vote for a President or a Vice President. This amendment was important to our country.

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A. 14th Amendment 1868 1.) The 14th Amendments guarantees all American citizens that are male and over the age of 21 have the right to vote regardless of race. This extended the right to vote to the Blacks and Chinese, and even brought up the question whether Native Americans should be allowed to vote. Even though these rights were a huge stepping stone for equality, they did not reach out to all Americans, Women did not get the right to vote until the 19th Amendment.

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An important goal of the Radical Republicans after the Civil War was to provide African Americans with equality in government. In doing so, by passing the 15th Amendment, no citizens of the United States could be neglected the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude (Document C). This allowed men of different races to vote in upcoming elections. By passing this amendment, there was great hope that Black Americans were finally gaining back their political rights. During Reconstruction, it occurred that many African Americans were starting to run for office, in South Carolina there were more Black State legislatures than White.

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While the 15th amendment and the 19th amendment both contribute to the importance of voting, they each took awhile to achieve a spot in the Constitution. Before the establishment of the fifteenth amendment, race and color affected mens voting rights. Slavery was officially abolished in the 1860’s; however, African Americans

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This was due to literacy tests and poll taxes. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified. This amendment gave all Americans the right to vote regardless of race (Document C). However, after the amendment was passed, Southern states passed a series of laws designed to restrict African Americans voting rights. First, they added the grandfather clause.

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The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, stating “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Although the Eighth Amendment is typically used in relation to the discussion of the death penalty or the evaluation of a long prison sentence for a nonviolent crime, in 2011 the Supreme Court used the cruel and unusual punishment portion of the amendment to assess Brown v. Plata, a case which determined whether or not the Eighth Amendment protection is violated if prisoners are deprived of basic sustenance. In the case of Brown v. Plata, 46,000 prisoners were to be released from a federal correction facility as a result of unprecedented overcrowding within a

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The Importance of the 24th Amendment and Effects. The U.S. Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times since ratified on June 21, 1788. These Amendments have been crucial to the up-keeping of America and its constant changes. The most of important of which being the 24th Amendment, which protected voting rights from taxes. The 24th amendment reads as followed “The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax”.

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In his speech he explained why they wanted the right to vote, “If the Negro knows enough to pay taxes to support government, he knows enough to vote; taxation and representation should go together... ” (“African Americans,” 2016). In 1869, when Congress debated on the Fifteenth Amendment, the first ever black national meeting of African Americans took place in the convention in Washington, D.C and those who attended the convention spent time meeting with member of Congress, encouraging them to pass a strong Amendment guaranteeing black male suffrage worldwide (“African Americans,” 2016). Democrats feared ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, because they believed that it would create 170,000 loyal black Republican voters in the North and West and to vote against it, they claimed that it restricted the states’ rights to run their own election and also that the low literacy of the black population would affect the votes (“African Americans,” 2016). Despite all Democratic oppositions, the Republicans won ratification victories and in March 30, 1869, President Grant officially proclaimed the Fifteenth Amendment as part of the Constitution.

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The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “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.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

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As noted in Document 1, the 14th Amendment explicitly affirmed: “…All persons born or naturalized in the United State, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws…” The 14th Amendment ------------ (lead into the 15th amendment) 15th Amendment: The Fifteenth Amendment granted all male citizens, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” the right to vote.

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Finally, with the ratification the fifteenth amendment in 1870s, it secured the vote for the African Americans, and it forbid states from denying any citizens from the right to vote based on race, color, or “previous condition of servitude.” These three amendments were significant changes during the Reconstruction period because all people, not just white, can fully enjoy being an American citizen without worrying over their race or

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One of reasons the confederacy failed was because the U.S. Congress, with Lincoln’s support, proposed the 13th amendment which would abolish slavery in America. Although the confederate peace delegation was unwilling to accept a future without slavery, the radical and moderate Republicans designed a way to takeover the reconstruction program. The Radical Republicans wanted full citizenship rights for African Americans and wanted to implement harsh reconstruction policies toward the south. The radical republican views made up the majority of the Congress and helped to pass the 14th amendment which guaranteed equality under the law for all citizens, and protected freedmen from presidential vetoes, southern state legislatures, and federal court decisions. In 1869, Congress passed the fifteenth amendment stating that no citizen can be denied the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

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Post Civil War, African Americans started to gain rights to gain rights, and soon gain rights equal to whites. While there were some people/things standing in their way (KKK, Black Codes), in the end they got what they needed; Equality. Many acts and laws were passed to aid the new rights now held by African Americans, as well as the numerous people willing to help. New Amendments were added to give African Americans rights after the war, all giving them some equal rights to whites. The first of the three added was the Thirteenth Amendment, it gave African Americans freedom from slave owners, and stated that no one could be kept as a slave in the U.S..

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Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.

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