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The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution is the Document that Ended Slavery. It Was Ratified in 1870, but it Didn’t Take Full Intended Effect Until 1965.

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The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution forced individual States to allow freed slaves to vote.

One-third of the amendments, known as the Reconstruction Amendments, passed after the Civil War, when these amendments drew a great deal of attention.

Despite being adopted in 1870, it wasn’t fully enforced or recognized nationally until 1965 with the adoption of the Voting Rights Act in response to the American civil rights movement.

At the time of this amendment’s proposal and discussion, many states within the United States were turning away black voters outright or otherwise blocking their ability to vote.

The State of North Carolina, in 1835 for instance, passed a constitutional amendment to the state’s constitution banning former slaves from voting.

The infamous Dred Scott case heard before the Supreme Court of the United States (Dred Scott v. Sandford) found, in its dissent, that the right to vote was the right of citizens.

That case, more than any other, defined the issue of citizenship, voting rights, and similar aspects of American rights, as defined by law.

Many of the Reconstruction Amendments were created because of the opinions expressed by both sides of the Supreme Court’s decision in that case.

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Getting Around the New Amendment

Soon after the adoption of the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, some parts of the nation saw new legislation and changes to the polling and voting structures that were instituted as a measure to block the black vote.

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other voter-qualification laws were enacted. Other states just made polling places hard to locate or difficult for black persons to get access to.

An example of the civil unrest that this radical change in American thinking brought about happened when a mob attempted to forcefully unseat and take over the interracial government of New Orleans.

President Ulysses S. Grant sent in federal troops to restore the elected Mayor to his seat.

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Historical Background to the 15Th Amendment

While many states did not allow or otherwise blocked the black vote, many others saw the election of black leaders to state office thanks to the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Laws against interracial marriage were rescinded or changed, universal public education was adopted as a new step towards human welfare, and more were all enacted by these new legislations.

At the same time this amendment was being drafted, argued, and adopted, groups were mobilizing to oppose it and similar state-level measures in all parts of the nation.

Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan rose to prominence during this time, as did other racially-motivated organizations.

These groups opposed the changes and racial integration going on around the country, especially the granting of full rights of citizenship to freed men.

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Court Decisions and Historical Notes

Since the ratification of this amendment, achieved with Iowa and Georgia’s votes in 1870, further cases before the Supreme Court and other, lower courts have found that the amendment applies to all races. This was affirmed in Rice v. Cayetano.

As an interesting historical note, the 15th amendment to the US Constitution was not fully ratified by every State in the Union until Tennessee ratified it in 1997, after having rejected it 128 years earlier in 1869.

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A Turning Point in American Politics

Since its final acceptance socially in the 1960s and 1970s, this amendment has been seen as a turning point in American politics and is often touted as the heralding of the end of slavery in this country.

Although this viewpoint is not historically accurate, it might be so socially because it opened the idea of the right to vote being inherent in the right to life, liberty, and property in this country.

That fundamental shift in thinking brought about many more changes for this nation (both good and bad), and began a new age of American government, in effect due to the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution.

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