Fifteenth+Amendment

=__**The Fifteenth Amendment**__=

toc The Senate passed the 15th Amendment on February 26, 1869. The Fifteenth Amendment was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments to be ratified. It was made to stop discrimination against voters. It said 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."

__**Proposal and Ratification**__
On Febuary 25, 1869 the House of Representatives passed the 15th Amendment. The Senate passed it on February 26, 1869 Congress proposed it also on Feb. 26. Nevada was the first state to ratifiy the 15th Amendment. Tennessee was the last state to ratify the Amendment on April 2, over a hundred years after the Amendment was proposed. The Ratification was complete on Febuary 3, 1870.

__Writing the Amendment__
There were three different versions of the 15th Amendment while it was being written. The first stopped states from denying citizens the vote because of their race, color, and that they have previously been a slave. The second one stopped states from not allowing African-Americans to vote because of literacy, property, or the circumstances of their birth. The third one just said that all males 21 and older were allowed to vote. Congress decided to go with the first version, but many congressmen thought that it was generic and left to many gaps for loopholes.

**__Southern States__**
When the amendment was being ratified several states rejected the amendment. At one point most of the nothern states had voted and 11 more states were needed to ratify the amendment. To make sure southern states voted congress made it so that in order to join the Union they had to vote for the 14th and 15th Amendment. Without much of a choice the southern states voted for the 25th amendment and it became apart of the Constitution on March 30, 1870.

**__Violence__**
Due to the vagueness of the Amendment southerners found a way to stop blacks from voting. The policemen in the south did not enforce the amendment that much and allowed white men to prevent African-Americans from voting. Some polling areas would make everyone pay a poll tax or take a literacy test. this was not fair because most African-Americans were poor and didnt have a good education.

__The Future__
African-Americans didn't earn true freedom until many years after the Civil War. It wasent until then that everyone was treated fairly and the 15th Amendment was truely understood. It was one of the first steps to give Blacks full freedom. It took over a centery for the full meaning of the amendment to be felt by the south.

**__Resources__**
15th Amendment to the Constitution ,September 10, 2008 http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html 10/18/08

Peope & Events: Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/e_fifteenth.html 10/22/08 Acts, Bills, and Laws Background of the 15th Amendment Ratified - 1870 http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h415.html 10/18/08

Garraty, John A. __The Story of America.__ Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1994.