Fifteenth Amendment Ratified
February 3, 1870 · 19th Century
Ratified on February 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The final Reconstruction Amendment, it enabled Black men to vote and hold office across the South during Reconstruction. Its promise was systematically dismantled through poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and violent intimidation — mechanisms that endured until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Key Figures
Ulysses S. GrantFrederick DouglassCharles SumnerHiram Revels
Locations
Washington, D.C.
Topics
civil rightsUSAafrican american historyvoting rightsconstitutional amendmentreconstructionsuffrage
Connected Events — 4 Connections
The 15th Amendment's 1870 guarantee of voting rights regardless of race established the constitutional framework that suffragists invoked for 50 years to win the 19th Amendment for women Nineteenth Amendment Ratified
Promise finally enforced by Voting Rights Act of 1965
Completed voting rights begun by Fourteenth Amendment Ratified
Fought to finally enforce promise of Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Marches
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