SYates.CSheridan.TRosario.MWalls;VotingRightsTimeline

White men with property have the right to vote but Catholics, Jews, Quakers and others are barred from voting.

New Hampshire becomes the first state to eliminate the rule that only property owners and taxpayers can vote. Following New Hampshire's lead, other states begin to shift away from such restrictions in an effort to open the electorate to more white males.

The Fifteenth Amendment states: "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.

The Nineteenth Amendment, adopted by Congress on June 4, 1919, is finally ratified by the states and becomes national law, giving women the right to vote.

Indian Citizenship Act grants all Native Americans the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote in federal elections.

Amendment XXVI Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

History of Voting Rights

(cc) image by jantik on Flickr

2002 March

2005

June 30, 1971

1790

1792

1869

1971

1919

1924

“In 1971, thousands deserted the army, while at home Vietnam Veterans held anti-war demonstrations.”

The passage of the U.S. Constitution giving white male property owners age 21 and over the right to vote.

Senators from the western states objected. At their insistence, the naturalization law was amended to make Africans eligible to obtain citizenship when migrating from abroad.

The Johnson Administration plans to ask Congress next week for a constitutional amendment that would lower the voting age to 18."Now, I believe we should extend the range of young peoples' participation in public life," he said. "I believe we should move forward--now--to grant the vote to 18-year olds."

maryland's constitution of 1776 restored to the large catholics gained civil and political rights that had been denied to them for nearly a century.

Jefferson passed a bill whose preamble declared that god hath created the mind free “eliminate religious requirements for Voting and Office holding and government financial support for churches, and barred the state from forcing individuals to adopt one or another religious outlook.”

“Once New Jersey added the word ‘male’ to its voting requirements 1807, women everywhere, whether married or single, propertied or dependent, were denied the right to vote.”

In 1864, Lincoln, who before the war had never supported suffrage for African-Americans, urged the governor of Union-occupied Louisiana to work for the partial enfranchisement of blacks, singling our soldiers.

“Equal rights became the rallying cry of the early movement for women’s rights, and equal rights meant claiming access to all the prevailing definitions of freedom.”

I believe the time has come to lower the voting age in the United States, and thereby to bring American youth into the mainstream of our political process. To me, this is the most important single principle we can pursue as a nation if we are to succeed in bringing our youth into full and lasting participation in our institutions of democratic government.