[46][65] The Court later relied on this decision in Rice v. Cayetano (2000),[66] which struck down ancestry-based voting in elections for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; the ruling held that the elections violated the Fifteenth Amendment by using "ancestry as a racial definition and for a racial purpose". Terms of Service |  In the year of its ratification, only eight Northern states allowed Blacks to vote. to take away certain rights, usually voting. "[71] According to the Court, "Regardless of how to look at the record no one can fairly say that it shows anything approaching the 'pervasive', 'flagrant', 'widespread', and 'rampant' discrimination that faced Congress in 1965, and that clearly distinguished the covered jurisdictions from the rest of the nation." [43] The Court wrote: The Fifteenth Amendment does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone. Along with increasing legal obstacles, blacks were excluded from the political system by threats of violent reprisals by whites in the form of lynch mobs and terrorist attacks by the Ku Klux Klan. [19] Some Representatives from the North, where nativism was a major force, wished to preserve restrictions denying the franchise to foreign-born citizens, as did Representatives from the West, where ethnic Chinese were banned from voting. [24] The struggle for ratification was particularly close in Indiana and Ohio, which voted to ratify in May 1869 and January 1870, respectively. In the final years of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era that followed, Congress repeatedly debated the rights of the millions of former black slaves. Despite the amendment, by the late 1870s discriminatory practices were used to prevent blacks from exercising t… Sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act required states and local governments with histories of racial discrimination in voting to submit all changes to their voting laws or practices to the federal government for approval before they could take effect, a process called "preclearance". (1865-1877) period during which the states formerly belonging to the Confederate States of America were transformed and integrated back into the United States following the Civil War. [46] In Guinn v. United States (1915),[50] a unanimous Court struck down an Oklahoma grandfather clause that effectively exempted white voters from a literacy test, finding it to be discriminatory. [38] This was the first time in American history that Congress was able to muster the votes necessary to override a presidential veto. The bill also guaranteed equal benefits and access to the law, a direct assault on the Black Codes passed by many post-war Southern states. In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, "Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet. slavery, bondage, or a condition in which one lacks the ability to make decisions for one’s self or determine one’s own way of life. Some examples of Jim Crow laws are poll taxes (a fee required to vote—generally not applied to white voters), literacy tests (the Mississippi test asked applicants to copy a portion of the state constitution at the white administrator's discretion), or owning property as a condition of voting. Margot Willis, National Geographic Society. The amendment reads, “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.” That right is an exemption from discrimination in the exercise of the elective franchise on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Jim Crow laws were enforced by election boards or by groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, who intimidated African Americans with violence if they voted or wished to do so. Voting rights in the United States have not always been equally accessible. United States Supreme Court decisions in the late nineteenth century interpreted the amendment narrowly. "[19] Many Republicans felt that with the amendment's passage, black Americans no longer needed federal protection; congressman and future president James A. Garfield stated that the amendment's passage "confers upon the African race the care of its own destiny. Here, people in Harlem, New York City, around 1954, wait to vote. Disenfranchisement is the word used to describe laws passed to prevent people from voting and obtaining rights other citizens have.The actions to prevent African Americans from exercising their civil rights became known as “Jim Crow” laws. [29] Some Radical Republicans, such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, abstained from voting because the amendment did not prohibit literacy tests and poll taxes. Section 1. President Grant said of the amendment that it "completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came to life. [8][9] Three weeks later, Johnson's veto was overridden and the measure became law. [20] Both Southern and Northern Republicans also wanted to continue to deny the vote temporarily to Southerners disenfranchised for support of the Confederacy, and they were concerned that a sweeping endorsement of suffrage would enfranchise this group. For a while, President Johnson followed Lincoln’s plan, but then implemented his own in May of 1865. [30] Following congressional approval, the proposed amendment was then sent by Secretary of State William Henry Seward to the states for ratification or rejection. [23][24], The vote in the House was 144 to 44, with 35 not voting. [7] Although strongly urged by moderates in Congress to sign the bill, President Johnson vetoed it on March 27, 1866. On February 26, 1869, after rejecting more sweeping versions of a suffrage amendment, Congress proposed a compromise amendment banning franchise restrictions on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude. Black codes were established in many states that curtailed the rights of African Americans. [57][58] However, in United States v. Classic (1941),[59] the Court ruled that primary elections were an essential part of the electoral process, undermining the reasoning in Grovey. [63], The Court also used the amendment to strike down a gerrymander in Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960). It prevents the States, or the United States, however, from giving preference, in this particular, to one citizen of the United States over another on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Before the war even ended he had created a plan referred to as Reconstruction. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Previous to this amendment, there was no constitutional guaranty against this discrimination: now there is.