15 Amendment Research Paper

Two hundred and two years, seven months, and twelve days is what it took our twenty-seventh amendment to be ratified onto our constitution. Was this a very sensitive and complex amendment that needed meticulous studying and logistics planing? No, the twenty-seventh amendment simply states that no Senators or Representatives can alter their pay during their tenure and only can it be changed when their term is up. In the constitution it states "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened". While this seems so simple, there seems to be some inherent complexity to it.

The United States of America as they stand today are a result of the evolution of the frameworks our founding fathers set in to place long ago. Among them were the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia and New Jersey plans, the Federalist Papers, and the Constitution. Beginning with the original frame work for the government of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, established in 1781, formed a firm league of friendship among the states, instead of a government for the people (Dye, Gaddie 66). The United States fared well under the Articles of Confederation. With success in gaining independence from Great Britain, gaining France as an ally and establishing a viable peace.

Ulysses Grant fought in many bloody, historic battles, but could not stand the sight of blood. Ulysses Grant was the 18th president of the United States and he made our country a strong powerful nation. He was a commanding general and he led the Union army to victory in the American civil war (Ulysses S. Grant). He helped revolutionize America and gain rights for African Americans by helping to create the 15th amendment. Our country thought that he really helped end all the inequality in our country and make a stronger nation.

During 1865-1870, the years following the Civil War, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were ratified. Within these Amendments, African-Americans gained the right to become US citizens in the Fourteenth Amendment and were granted the ability to vote through the Fifteenth Amendment. The ratifications of both of the Amendments marked a turning point in history, both in politics and society, by allowing them to officially have rights. After they were ratified, politics changed by giving African-Americans more representation in government, however socially, racism stayed the same by black codes being created while education changed through the Freedmen’s Bureau. Before the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth

In summary, the Fifteenth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution in order to give U.S. citizens the right to vote. This means that a U.S. citizen who is eighteen years of age or older shall be allowed to vote and not discriminated against because of their race, color, or history of servitude. The Fifteenth Amendment also gives Congress the right to create laws in order to enforce the amendment. Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act in 1965 in response to the Jim Crow laws. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act says that local governments and certain states must obtain permission from the federal government before they can make any changes to their voting laws or practices.

The right of citizens of the body 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. This amendment was proposed on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870. African Americans who had been slaves became citizens under the terms of the 14th Amendment. The 15th Amendment does not specifically say that they must be allowed to vote. The states are free to set qualifications for voters.

After African Americans gained the right to vote under the 15th Amendment in 1870, I switched my attention to other issues, such as women 's rights,

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created, by Lyndon B. Johnson, to further enforce the 15th Amendment of the United States. The purpose of the act was to ensure democracy within the United States by giving everyone an equal ability to practice their rights. Throughout the history of the United States, African Americans have been denied of their basic freedoms as citizens. The Voting Rights Act made it harder for states to further deny African-Americans, and other

The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified February 3, 1870, states that 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.” By dodging around the Amendment, people still found ways to disclude African Americans from voting. According to Document L, “Denying black men the right to vote through legal maneuvering and violence was a first step in taking away their civil rights. Beginning in 1890s, southern states enacted literacy tests... The laws proved very effective.

The Eighteenth Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Act, took effect as of January 16, 1920, outlawing the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States from January 1920 till December 6, 1933. Prohibition was established to reduce the effects that alcohol had on families and on society. When primarily men consumed too much alcohol, their actions often resulted in domestic violence,often interfering with men's work performance, and money wasted that the family needed to support families. The prohibition period was very unsuccessful due to people wanting and doing whatever it took to get alcohol now that it was illegal, no matter how enforced prohibition was, leading to many Americans smuggling illegal alcohol

Two specific examples of federal laws rulings that were victories in the equality movements were President Johnson Voting Rights Act in 1965 prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. It was aimed to overcome legal barriers preventing African American from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment in 1870. Various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans to exercises their right to vote especially in the South mean African Americans were mistreated violently attacked when trying to vote. The voting act banned the use of literacy testing and made poll taxing illegal. This law gave legal law means to challenge voting restrictions.

In the Southern states they used black codes, which were laws to limit the labor and social rights of African Americans. The 15th Amendment talks about the importance of no differences between men such as white men and black men since 15th Amendment prohibits the bad treatment or differences between the population by physical characteristics, color, language, region, among others. The amendment was approved thanks to Radical Republicans in Congress ( the house of representatives and senate) that wrote this amendment which granted African American men the right to vote, declaring that: “1- the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States on account of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.

Despite the fact that African Americans and other racial and ethnic minority Americans are guaranteed the right to vote by the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was passed just after the Civil War in 1870, states and local municipalities continued to use tactics such as poll taxes, literacy tests and outright intimidation to stop people from casting free and unfettered ballots. During the Civil Rights activism of the 1960's, just 5 days after Martin Luther King, Jr. led the march on Selma, President Lyndon Johnson announced his intention to pass a federal Voting Rights Act to insure that no federal, state or local government may in any way impede people from registering to vote or voting because of their race or ethnicity. In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights

One of the main issue was schooling system where black people were not allowed to go to white peoples’ public schools. This became a main issue because of the limited resources black people had in their schools they were not able to provide same level of quality education as white schools were able to provide to their children. NAACP was a civil right organization; they were working on all of these issues to end segregation from country. Chief justice Earl Warren ruled on May 1954 that separate

Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.