The 15th Amendment concedes African Americans the right to vote. Despite the amendment, in the late 1870s, oppressive practices were utilized to continue to hold African Americans from their right to vote. Those tactics include Jim Crow laws, violence, intimidation, unreasonable literacy test, and poll taxes. The Voting Rights act of 1965, promised punishment to those who denied African Americans from their right to vote under the 15th amendment.
Various early forms of the amendment were presented to the senate, tearing republicans between two different approaches in which the direction of the amendment should go. One direction established a general standard for all males to vote and the other direction would be for voting to be granted based on the race of the individual. Congressman, Oliver P. Morton, argues that voting barriers were a “relic of state sovereignty” and the “whole fallacy lies in denying our nationality.”
On February 25, 1869, more than 66% of the individuals from the House of Representatives endorsed the proposed, Fifteenth Amendment. To this day, the amendment stands in the favor of African Americans being the reason for reconstruction.
