The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified February 3, 1870, explicitly prohibits the United States and all states from denying or restricting voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This was the first constitutional amendment to establish a right to vote based on a protected characteristic and guaranteed former enslaved men the right to participate in elections.
Southern states immediately began evading it through poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and white primaries—tactics that disenfranchised most Black voters and many poor whites through the early 1960s. These weren't technically race-based (a poll tax applied to everyone), but their intent and effect targeted Black voters. President Johnson urged Congress in 1965 to pass legislation making "it impossible to thwart the 15th Amendment," leading to the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act required states with histories of racial discrimination to get federal preclearance before changing voting rules. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down the preclearance formula. Within five years, roughly 1,000 polling places closed, many in predominantly African American counties, showing that the Fifteenth Amendment alone cannot prevent discrimination without enforcement mechanisms.
The Fifteenth Amendment promised equal voting rights 150 years ago, but Southern states circumvented it for a century. Today it faces new questions: preclearance is gone, and states continue using ostensibly race-neutral rules that disproportionately burden Black voters.
People think the Fifteenth Amendment solved voting discrimination. It provided the constitutional principle, but states found ways around it through "race-neutral" tactics. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965—95 years later—to create federal enforcement tools.
The Fifteenth Amendment promised equal voting rights 150 years ago, but Southern states circumvented it for a century. Today it faces new questions: preclearance is gone, and states continue using ostensibly race-neutral rules that disproportionately burden Black voters.
People think the Fifteenth Amendment solved voting discrimination. It provided the constitutional principle, but states found ways around it through "race-neutral" tactics. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965—95 years later—to create federal enforcement tools.