What Is the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?

Voting rights – 1870

Section 1: 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.

Section 2: The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Side note: States could require voters to pass literacy tests and/or pay poll taxes, both difficult for the formerly enslaved, who had little education or money.

Although the change was discussed, women were still not given the right to vote. It would be 50 more years before this happened with the addition of the 19th amendment.

See: Previous Amendment (Fourteenth Amendment) – Next Amendment (Sixteenth Amendment)

Scroll to Top