Again we see this trend with both the 13th and 15th amendment. In terms of the 13th, the case of Dred Scott v. Stanford comes to mind. We see the court rule and state that Americans of African descent were not American citizens and therefore could not sue in federal court. Along with that we also again see racial segregation upheld in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, as I talked about previously. Although there were no cases that directly overturned the Dred Scott case or the Plessy case, the fourteenth amendment paved way for equal protection and marked these two decisions infamous for their unconstitutionality. The decision in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board again pushed towards to what some consider the start of the end of racial segregation…
Three years after all the slaves were free the 14th and 15th amendments were ratified to grant African Americans citizenship, due process of law, equal protection under the law, and the right to vote. Southern states had been oppressing African Americans their whole lives, when they were slaves, and even after they were freed. With the 14th and 15th amendments passed African Americans would now have equal rights and there was nothing southern state governments could do about it, right? Wrong. The Southern states began to issue poll taxes.…
After the abolition of slavery in the United States, three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. In spite of these amendments and civil rights acts to enforce the amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states.…
In 1965, Congress passed the Voting rights act, making southern blacks be able to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements were now pronounced illegal.…
At the point when the fifteenth amendment was proposed it was a major step in reconstruction in 1869.The amendment guaranteed that any male citizen of different race, color, or previous condition of servitude could not be denied the right to vote. Republicans believed they had succeeded in giving African American men the right to vote.…
After the Civil War, the United States entered a period known as the Reconstruction Era. During the Reconstruction Era, three pivotal amendments were passed and added to the Constitution. Amendment 13, passed in 1865 and perhaps the most crucial, abolished all slavery in the United States. Amendment 14 was passed in 1868 and granted African American citizenship, a step up from the 3/5 Compromise in which white slave owners could use each slave they owned as 3/5 of a person (and a vote) when it came time to vote for representatives in the late 1700s. The 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, granted black men the right to vote.…
When the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, it made all people born in the United States citizens, giving them the right to vote once the Fifteenth Amendment was passed according to what the Fifteenth Amendment states. White supremacists illegally used methods to disenfranchise African Americans from voting. Some of…
citizen of any color to vote. After Reconstruction, the New South,” enacted literacy tests, poll taxes, elaborate registration systems, and eventually whites-only Democratic Party primaries to exclude black voters(Document L). In addition, a poll tax receipt from Louisiana 1918 required voters to pay an expensive tax of $1.00 to vote (Document K). During the time the $1.00 tax made voting a luxury because it was an exorbitant price. This resulted in millions of blacks being unfairly rejected from the voting process which was a violation of their voting rights. Literacy tests also prevented black voting since there would be a change in difficulty based on your race. A drastic decrease in black voters was a result of these laws which countered the 15th amendment. The opposite side may claim that the poll tax applied to blacks and whites. However, the grandfather clause says that taxes and tests don’t apply to men who have had a father vote, which allowed whites to vote for free while blacks never voted before. These obstacles diminished the effect of the 15th Amendment and continuous efforts were made to cripple the rights of African…
Constitution which was introduced in 1866 and ratified by 1868. This amendment states that people born in the U.S., and subjects to the jurisdiction are citizens of the U.S. It also declared that no state can enforce any laws to deny former slaves the right to vote. It also claims that former slaves are not properties and no state shall deprive any person of their life, liberty, and property without the approval of the law or government. The amendment emphasize that any male inhabitants of the state being twenty-one years old, and a citizen of the U.S. has the right to vote. In this statement, a half of the former slaves and other minorities like women couldn’t vote because women were not included in the amendment. The 14th Amendment attacked national court cases such as the Dred Scott and state cases such as People v. Hall in California. This amendment undermined Dred Scott case which said slaves were properties, and they could be moved into any state in the U.S. The amendment also undermined the People v. Hill case which claim non-white people doesn’t have the basic rights in state of California. Therefore, the 14th Amendment made a huge impact on former slaves by giving them the rights to vote, and basic rights as citizens of United…
By the late 1870s, multiple discriminatory practices were used to prevent minorities from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South. The 15th Amendment was in reality only the beginning of a struggle for equality that would continue for more than century before African Americans could begin to participate fully in American public and life. "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law which was to overcome legal barriers from the exercise to vote and prohibits racial discrimination in voting" ("U.S.…
After the murder of Abraham Lincoln, the United States was left without a wise leader, in this panic and loss of a president, Andrew Johnson was elected. Johnson was an Unionist and was hated, for his excessive use of his pardoning power, by the Radicals, state governments and moderate Republicans. Southerns would elect leaders that served the confederacy and that would instal “Black codes”, these codes would beat down African American’s civil rights and push them to being slaves again. From violences against African Americans, Yankees and Unionists, the 14 Amendment was produced. The Fourteenth Amendment enabled every American citizen rights that states had to respect and honor. The amendment made the South more violent and they would not…
Fifteenth amendment prohibits denying men the rights to vote based on their race. Men have been discouraged about not being able to vote or to have other opportunities.Me as the leader in our community, I think if we want to improve the condition of our African American life we would have to not give up and keep trying, lose some pride that we may have, and also let no one tell you what you are capable or what you’re not. Working together we could all make a difference and change anything, so our future would be better.…
Only a week before the inauguration of President Grant, the 15th Amendment was proposed, which declared that "the right to vote could not be denied on account of race." One year later the 15th…
The 15th amendment stated than any male citizen, regardless of color, or past servitude, could vote, and that the states could not deny them this. Having the right to vote was a huge victory for Blacks. White Americans, especially those in politics, could no longer ignore them, since their vote could decide who became Governor, Senator or even President. This gave Black people a lot of power bot socially, and politically. The fact that people who were once enslaved could vote, also helped developed an argument for women to gain suffrage, which occurred 50 years later. The 15th amendment was a major step toward equality, and was a huge win for the United States, even if people during the 1870’s could not see that at the…
The Process of Reconstruction lasted from 1863 to 1877. In 1868 the addition of the 14th Amendment granted former slaves their citizenship. Voters are specified as male. Although the amendment prohibits states from repudiating any rights of citizenship. Voting regulation was left to the discretion…