THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

• The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring 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." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

EARLY CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION

• The first law passed by Congress to implement the 15th Amendment was the Civil Rights Act f 1957, which set up the United States Civil Rights Comission. The Commisions major duties were to inquire into claims of voter discrimination, give the attorney general the power to seek federal court orders to prevent interference with any person's right to vote in any federal election.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination in several areas, especially in job-related matters. With regard to voting rights, its most important section forbids the use of any voter restriction or literacy requirement in an unfair or discriminatory manner. In major part, it relied on judicial action to overcome racial barriers and emphasized the use of federal court orders called injunctions, a court order the either compels or restrains the performance of some act by a private individual or by a public official. President Lyndon Johnson urged Congress to pass new and stronger legislation to ensure the voting rights of African Americans.

THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

• The voting Rights Act of 1965 made the 15th Amendment, at long last. a truly affective part oof the Constitution. Unliek its predecessors, this act applied to all elections held anywhere in this country-- State and local, as well as federal. This 1965 law directed the attorney general to challenge the constitutiionality of the remaining State poll-tax laws in the federal courts. The law also suspended the use of any literacy test or similar device in any State or county where less than half of the electorate had been registered or had voted in the 1964 presidential election.