FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT Proposed on February 27, 1869 and declared ratified on March 30, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States declared 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."

Often called the "Negro Suffrage Amendment," the Fifteenth Amendment was Congress' attempt to fully assure equality to Afro-Americans at polling places in the South. Though the majority of southern states subsequently devised laws and other legal means to evade the Fifteenth Amendment, the African Amer­icans had, through this Amendment, secured the right to vote, and, as it happened, exercised this right in large numbers. See also: DISFRANCHISEMENT.