Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870, and it states that the right to vote cannot be denied or restricted based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It was one of the three Reconstruction Amendments passed after the American Civil War and aimed to grant voting rights to African American men. The amendment was a significant step towards ensuring equal voting rights for all citizens, but it did not immediately eradicate voter discrimination and suppression. It took further legislative and legal actions like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce and protect the Fifteenth Amendment.
Did states when the Fifteenth Amendment was laid retain the ability to change voting laws despite the previous line stating that "It protects the rights of all races to vote"?
The Fifteenth Amendment did prohibit the denial or restriction of voting rights based on race, but it did not provide explicit guidelines on how this should be enforced or specify penalties for noncompliance. As a result, some states in the United States found ways to suppress the voting rights of African Americans despite the amendment.
States implemented a range of discriminatory practices, such as literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and intimidation tactics aimed at preventing African Americans from voting. These discriminatory practices were often carried out under the guise of seemingly neutral requirements but were designed to disproportionately impact minority communities.
It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the federal government took further action to combat these voting restrictions and enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. The Voting Rights Act provided federal oversight of election practices in specific states and required them to undergo "preclearance" by the federal government for any changes in voting laws or procedures. This helped to address and prevent discriminatory practices that were still being employed by some states.
In summary, while the Fifteenth Amendment intended to protect the right to vote for all races, states did manage to retain the ability to change voting laws and implement discriminatory practices until further legislation strengthened the enforcement of the amendment.