The 15th Amendment, granted African-American men the right to vote. Passed
by Congress the year before, the amendment reads: “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.” Despite the amendment, by the late 1870s,
various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans
from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South. After
decades of discrimination, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to
overcome legal barriers at the states that denied blacks
their right to vote under the 15th Amendment.
