15th Amendment Report

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by Adrienne Creech1 view·Updated Oct 21, 2021
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  1. the 15th Constitutional Amendment States in section one that the
  2. rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall
  3. not be denied or abridged by the United States or
  4. by any state on account of race, color, or previous
  5. condition of servitude.
  6. Section two of this amendment states that Congress shall have
  7. the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
  8. Now, a summary of this amendment is that the 15th
  9. amendment was created in 1870 prohibiting any government racial discrimination
  10. regarding voting rights.
  11. The amendment was one of three reconstruction amendments, including the
  12. 13th and 14th amendments.
  13. The constitution states that any citizen of the United States
  14. will not be denied the right to vote purely based
  15. on their race, skin color and previous servitude.
  16. The second portion of the amendment also gives the power
  17. to enforce this amendment to legislation allowing Congress to do
  18. whatever is deemed necessary to see this amendment through this
  19. amendment ultimately allowed former african american slaves and their families
  20. too be politically equal to a white man in America
  21. limits and restrictions on this amendment.
  22. Um, we're typically through loopholes that states who did not
  23. want african american men to vote could create by simply
  24. implicating laws requiring voters to pay fees and take literacy
  25. tests that former slaves and uneducated, uneducated men could just
  26. simply not pass or pay for.
  27. It was uncommon for an african american to be literate,
  28. has those resources were not available to them.
  29. And the work that offered enough money to vote was
  30. very difficult to obtain, given that majority of white businesses
  31. were racist towards african american workers.
  32. It took about 70 years of African Americans fighting for
  33. their civil rights to repeal these voting laws and completely
  34. uphold the 15th amendment.
  35. The way it was intended Now on to the history
  36. of the 15th Amendment.
  37. five years before this amendment was established, The civil war
  38. had just finally come to an end and slavery was
  39. just being abolished in 1865.
  40. It was at this time that the reconstruction era began
  41. mending the broken America left behind from the events of
  42. the civil war.
  43. As time continued, it became evident that there was a
  44. need for some further efforts to ensure african american suffrage
  45. within southern states who did not want freedom for african
  46. americans in the first place.
  47. Republicans pushed for the creation of a quote race blind
  48. end quote amendment years before its creation due to the
  49. fact that ex confederate states were already forced to allow
  50. african americans political power if they wanted to remain in
  51. control of their original communities.
  52. The wording of the 15th Amendment was also debated over
  53. as many were aware of the way states could easily
  54. maneuver ways to bypass the constitution and minimize african american
  55. political influence.
  56. The first Supreme Court case I found was on go
  57. million versus lightfoot.
  58. The go million versus lightfoot case involves racial discrimination regarding
  59. the redrawing of a district boundaries for the sole purpose
  60. of voting The district boundaries of tuskegee Alabama were redrawn
  61. replacing the one square shape Borders with a 28 sided
  62. region. This new district cut out mainly African American people
  63. in an effort to minimize their voting influence on the
  64. area. This relates back to the 15th amendment as the
  65. court case over whether African Americans right to vote without
  66. discrimination is being restricted by the redrawing of these district
  67. mountain trees.
  68. The court ruled this case unconstitutional, stating that the district
  69. was redrawn for the sole purpose of restricting african americans
  70. right to vote and hold political power in the community.
  71. The second Supreme Court cases, the court case of United
  72. States versus Reese in Lexington Kentucky During January of 1873,
  73. William Garner was denied a vote in municipal election by
  74. election inspectors, Hiram race and Matthew foe, she For not
  75. paying a tax fee of $1.50 which he was originally
  76. denied the opportunity to pay.
  77. The men were charged with violating the enforcement act, which
  78. was an act place to combat violence and right violations
  79. against african americans.
  80. The local court ruled this quote too broad end quote
  81. stating that it does not relate to the 15th amendment
  82. well enough.
  83. Therefore, This court case brought attention to the Enforcement Act
  84. to discuss if the act was legitimate exercise to enforce
  85. the 15th amendment.
  86. Once brought in front of the Supreme Court.
  87. Judges ruled that the enforcement act was not a valid
  88. exercise as it is, as its wording was not quote
  89. necessary to necessary limiting language to qualify as enforcement of
  90. the 15th amendment.
  91. End quote opinion.
  92. The 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution denies racial
  93. discrimination during voting.
  94. Being one of the first steps towards racial equality in
  95. the United States.
  96. If the United States did not have this amendment, the
  97. country would become very corrupt with heavy discrimination regarding voting
  98. rights against anyone with colored skin.
  99. Although this amendment has been twisted and manipulated over over
  100. centuries since its creation, it was a pivotal step towards
  101. equality in american history.
  102. For example, Jim Crow laws were put in place to
  103. restrict people of color and interfere with this amendment, but
  104. the Brown versus Board of Education case overturned Jim Crow
  105. laws followed by the voting rights Act, which destroyed all
  106. efforts to keep african americans from voting.
  107. Lastly, we have my resources, they're all in alphabetical order
  108. um with hanging indents as well.
  109. I'm just going to put them all on one page.
  110. So here's the first one Here.
  111. It could be that 2nd 1 And then right here
  112. to me that last one And that is all for
  113. the 15th amendment.
  114. Thank you very much