New York: Alfred R. The Fifteenth Amendment and its results. Baltimore: Lith. Back to top. Before the decisions in Baker v. Carr , Reynolds v. Sims , and similar cases, some districts in a state might have had , people, others only , people, but voters in each district would elect one representative to Congress. The Court concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment reflected principles of political equality that required each district have, to the extent possible, an equal number of residents, which is what one-vote, one-person means.
The second area of important decisions involves the right to get to the ballot box and cast a vote. Again under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court first began to recognize this right in the s, in Harper v. Virginia Board of Election s , Dunn v. Blumstein and many other cases, the Court decided that restrictions on who could vote would be subject to strict scrutiny, the most demanding judicial standard. Once this standard was announced, the Court quickly held unconstitutional virtually all restrictions on voting other than 1 citizenship; 2 residency in the jurisdiction; and 3 age under To evaluate other regulations on the voting process, the Court in later cases, such as Burdick v.
If it is, the regulation can survive only under strict scrutiny, which most regulations fail. But if the burden is not severe, the regulation is much more likely to be upheld. Most current constitutional controversies about regulations of the voting process take place under this Burdick framework and require courts to decide, first, whether a regulation imposes a severe burden on the right to vote.
Added to the Constitution in , the Fifteenth Amendment was the final of the three constitutional amendments enacted during Reconstruction in the aftermath of the Civil War. Though its express terms prohibit all racial discrimination in voting qualifications, the Amendment was aimed at ensuring the enfranchisement of African-Americans. Section 2 of this short but momentous Amendment also gave Congress the power to enact legislation to enforce the right against race-based denials of the vote.
The constitutional meaning of the Civil War was reflected in these three amendments; when the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, it represented the principle that African-American citizens—many of them former slaves—were now entitled to political equality.
Yet the most significant fact about the Fifteenth Amendment in American history is that it was essentially ignored and circumvented for nearly a century. This history illustrates that constitutional rights can be little more than words on paper unless institutions exist with the power to make sure those rights are actually enforced. For the first twenty to thirty years after the Amendment was adopted, black adult men women were generally not permitted to vote at this time were indeed permitted to vote—and did so in large numbers.
Nearly 2, African-Americans were elected to public offices during this period. But starting in , Southern states adopted an array of laws that made it extremely difficult for African-Americans and many poor whites to vote. This was the start of what is known as the era of disenfranchisement, and it lasted all the way up until These laws required people to demonstrate literacy, or prove their good character, or pay certain voting taxes, or overcome other hurdles, before they were permitted to vote.
As a result of these laws, African-American voting in the South was kept at extremely low levels from to , despite the Fifteenth Amendment. Early on in this process of disenfranchisement, the Supreme Court was asked to hold these laws unconstitutional. But in a case called Giles v. Harris , the Supreme Court refused to do so; the Court stated that it did not have the power to force Southern states to comply with the Fifteenth Amendment.
Later that year, in James v. Bowman , the Court held that the Amendment did not authorize Congress to punish private individuals who interfered to prevent African-Americans from voting. The Supreme Court did eventually invoke the Amendment to hold unconstitutional a few of the specific laws that sought to block African-Americans from effective political participation.
In , for example, the Court held unconstitutional rules that in some Southern states prohibited black citizens from voting in political primary elections. Smith v. Allwright In a well-known case, Gomillion v.
Yet as of , it was still the case that in Mississippi, for example, only 6. The situation only began to change dramatically in , when Congress used its power to enforce the Fifteenth and Fourteenth Amendment by enacting the Voting Rights Act of the VRA. Even before the U. Constitution was created, its framers understood that it would have to be amended to confront future challenges and adapt and grow alongside the new nation.
In creating the amendment process for what would become the permanent U. Constitution, the framers Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.
The 25th Amendment to the U. Passed by Congress on July 6, , the 25th Amendment was ratified by the states The First Amendment to the U. Constitution protects the freedom of speech, religion and the press. It also protects the right to peaceful protest and to petition the government. The amendment was adopted in along with nine other amendments that make up the Bill of Brown v.
For decades after, there was an increasingly wide gap between expenditures for white and black schools in Virginia. This is the leather cover of a volume of photographs featuring the delegates to and officials of Virginia's Constitutional Convention of — The book features portraits made by Foster's Photographic Gallery in Richmond.
The name of Hill Carter, who represented Hanover County at the convention, is embossed on the bottom half of the cover; this book likely belonged to him. Virginia State Board of Elections in removed most of the barriers. Encyclopedia Virginia Grady Ave. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation , the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia.
We invite you to learn more about Indians in Virginia in our Encyclopedia Virginia. Skip to content. Contributor: Brent Tarter. Amendment The Fifteenth Amendment contains two short sections.
Ratification Electioneering at the South. A Reconstruction—era poll book from Virginia lists the names of the African Americans from the Third Congressional District, in Southampton County, who cast their votes in the October 22, , election "for and against a [constitutional] Convention and for a delegate to the same.
President Ulysses S. Application Many white Virginians disapproved of black men voting. March 2, The U. Congress requires that the legislature of each state in the former Confederacy ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before its senators and elected representatives can be seated in Congress. October 22, The U. Army conducts an election in Virginia to authorize a state constitutional convention and to elect delegates.
The army allows African American men to vote in the election. February 25, The U. House of Representatives approves the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. February 26, The U. Senate approves the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. July 6, Voters ratify a new state constitution, often called the Underwood Constitution, rejecting separate provisions that would have disfranchised men who had held civil or military office under the Confederacy.
The new constitution supplants the former one, proclaimed on April 7,
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