What do the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments have in common?
The Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution all deal with expanding voting rights and equality.
1. The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prohibits denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment aimed to address and overcome the discriminatory practices used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.
2. The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) grants women the right to vote, ensuring that no citizen could be denied the ability to vote based on their sex. It was a significant victory for the women's suffrage movement and a crucial step towards gender equality in the United States.
3. The Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, thereby extending the right to vote to millions of young adults who were primarily impacted by the military draft during the Vietnam War. This amendment aimed to ensure that those who were old enough to fight for their country should also have the right to participate in its democratic processes.
In summary, these amendments share a common theme of expanding suffrage and equalizing access to voting rights for historically marginalized groups in the United States.