At the time of the Civil War, the United States
Constitution did not define who could vote. Such matters were left up to the
individual states, so to say that denial of voting rights to blacks or women
or anyone else was "unconstitutional" would have been merely a sign of
ignorance. A few northern states allowed black men to vote, but across the
United States voting was for the most part limited to white males. Following
is a time line of how black suffrage unfolded following the Civil War.
1867 - Congress enacted the Military Reconstruction Act,
which offered readmittance to the Union for former Confederate states if
they accepted universal suffrage for all men (i.e. males)
1868 - The 14th Amendment conferred citizenship on all
people born or naturalized in the United States
1870 - The 15th Amendment mandated that the right to vote
be neither denied nor abridged on the basis of race, color or previous
condition of servitude. This superseded state laws that had directly
prohibited black voting.
1870 - Enforcement Act specified criminal penalties for
interference with the right to vote
1871 - Force Act provided federal oversight of elections
As a result, hundreds of thousands of recently-freed slaves registered to
vote and, for the first time, black candidates were elected to state, local
and federal offices.
As is well known, various organizations opposed to all of this vigorously
opposed enforcement of the 15th amendment, using violence and intimidation.
In the late 1870s, the federal government backed off and allowed the
southern states to largely block the intended changes. White control of the
state legislatures used
gerrymandering and other tactics to reduce black voting strength and
minimize the number of black elected officials. These tactics included
implementation of poll taxes, literacy tests, vouchers of "good character,"
and disqualification for "crimes of moral turpitude."
Over the coming years, a number of Supreme Court cases and new legislation
slowly chipped away at the infrastructure intended to impede black
involvement in the political process. The Civil Rights Division within the
Department of Justice and the Commission on Civil Rights were created in
1957; the Attorney General was given authority to intervene in and institute
lawsuits seeking injunctive relief against violations of the 15th Amendment.
Recommended Resources
| Best of Other Free Websites, Videos, etc. | |
| 15th Amendment to the US Constitution comments | American Experience PBS series on Reconstruction, segment on the black vote Streaming Video |
| Independent web posting on this topic. Very detailed. View | US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section historical information |
| Harpers Weekly material on Black Voting Rights View | |
| Books and Other Media | ||||
| Info About the Item Below | Excellent Book about the Entire US Constitution, including the Electoral System | Another Book of Potential Interest | Another Book of Potential Interest | Another Book of Potential Interest |
| Other Sites of Potential Interest (content selected automatically) |
Test Your Knowledge
This test covers the information in this article. Read each question and decide in your head what the answer is. Click the empty cell in the Answers column to see the correct answer.
| Black Suffrage | Which amendment to the US Constitution confers citizenship on all people born or naturalized in the United States (including former slaves)? | 14th Amendment |
| What did the 15th Amendment provide? | That the right to vote could be neither denied nor abridged on the basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude. | |
| In what year was the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department created? | 1957 |
Click Here to go to the "Test Your Knowledge" page covering all articles included in this week's theme on DailyUSHistory.com.
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