Amendment XV
Race No Bar to Vote
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1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Ratified: February 26, 1869
The 15th Amendment, which ensures the right of black men to vote, was proposed on February 26, 1869.
| # | State | Date | * |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | Mar 1, 1869 | |
| 2 | West Virginia | Mar 3, 1869 | |
| 3 | Illinois | Mar 5, 1869 | |
| 4 | Louisiana | Mar 5, 1869 | |
| 6 | Michigan | Mar 5, 1869 | |
| 5 | North Carolina | Mar 5, 1869 | |
| 7 | Wisconsin | Mar 5, 1869 | |
| 8 | Maine | Mar 11, 1869 | |
| 9 | Massachusetts | Mar 12, 1869 | |
| 10 | Arkansas | Mar 15, 1869 | |
| 11 | South Carolina | Mar 15, 1869 | |
| 12 | Pennsylvania | Mar 25, 1869 | |
| 13 | New York | Apr 14, 1869 | |
| 14 | Indiana | May 14, 1869 | |
| 15 | Connecticut | May 19, 1869 | |
| 16 | Florida | Jun 14, 1869 | |
| 17 | New Hampshire | Jul 1, 1869 | |
| 18 | Virginia | Oct 8, 1869 | |
| 19 | Vermont | Oct 20, 1869 | |
| 20 | Alabama | Nov 16, 1869 | |
| 21 | Missouri | Jan 7, 1870 | |
| 22 | Minnesota | Jan 13, 1870 | |
| 23 | Mississippi | Jan 17, 1870 | |
| 24 | Rhode Island | Jan 18, 1870 | |
| 25 | Kansas | Jan 19, 1870 | |
| 26 | Ohio | Jan 27, 1870 | |
| 27 | Georgia | Feb 2, 1870 | |
| 28 | Iowa | Feb 3, 1870 | * |
| 29 | Nebraska | Feb 17, 1870 | |
| 30 | Texas | Feb 18, 1870 | |
| 31 | New Jersey | Feb 15, 1871 | |
| 32 | Delaware | Feb 12, 1901 | |
| 33 | Oregon | Feb 24, 1959 | |
| 34 | California | Apr 3, 1962 | |
| 35 | Maryland | May 7, 1973 | |
| 36 | Kentucky | Mar 18, 1976 | |
| 37 | Tennessee | April 8, 1997 | |
| Ratified in 342 days | |||
This amendment was specifically rejected by Kentucky on Mar 12, 1869; by Delaware on Mar 18, 1869; by Ohio on Apr 30, 1869; by Tennessee on Nov 16, 1869; by California on Jan 28, 1870; by New Jersey on Feb 7, 1870; and by Maryland on Feb 26, 1870. New York rescinded its ratification on Jan 5, 1870, and rescinded the rescission on Mar 30, 1970.
History: The last of the Reconstruction Amendments, the 15th Amendment was designed to close the last loophole in the establishment of civil rights for newly-freed black slaves. It ensured that a person's race, color, or prior history as a slave could not be used to bar that person from voting. Though a noble idea, it had little practical effect for quite some time, as the Southern states found myriad ways to intimidate blacks to keep them from voting. The Congress passed the amendment on February 26, 1869, and it was ratified on February 3, 1870 (342 days).
Though ratification of the 15th Amendment was not a requirement for re-admittance to the Congress of the Confederate states, one of the provisions of the Reconstruction Acts required that the states include a provision in their new constitutions that included a near-copy of the text of the 15th. All of the CSA states except Tennessee, which was immune from the Reconstruction Acts, eventually ratified the 15th Amendment.
