AP Syllabus focus:
‘The 15th Amendment prohibited denying the right to vote on account of race, granting African American men the right to vote.’
The Fifteenth Amendment (ratified 1870) is a core constitutional expansion of democracy after the Civil War.
This 1870s commemorative lithograph celebrates the Fifteenth Amendment and portrays Black civic life during Reconstruction, including scenes of political participation and voting. As a primary-source visual, it shows how contemporaries framed the amendment as a democratic milestone—while also hinting that rights on paper required social and political enforcement to become real in practice. Source
It aimed to protect Black men’s suffrage by limiting states’ ability to exclude voters using explicit racial discrimination.
What the 15th Amendment Says and Does
Core constitutional rule
The amendment establishes that voting rights cannot be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” It also gives Congress power to enforce this rule through “appropriate legislation.”
15th Amendment: A constitutional amendment (1870) that prohibits federal and state governments from denying or abridging the right to vote based on race, colour, or previous condition of servitude, and authorises congressional enforcement.
What it protects (and what it doesn’t)
Protects against race-based voting discrimination (including discrimination tied to prior enslavement).
Does not explicitly address barriers framed as race-neutral (even when applied discriminatorily), such as certain registration rules or “character” requirements.
Applies to voting (casting a ballot), but many disputes involve earlier steps like registration, primaries, and ballot access.
Historical Context: Reconstruction Goals and Opposition
Why it was adopted
Followed the Civil War and emancipation, as Reconstruction Republicans sought to secure political participation for formerly enslaved people.
Reflected the view that citizenship and equal civil status required meaningful access to elections, especially in the former Confederacy.
Immediate political stakes
Expanding the electorate changed who could win offices at local, state, and federal levels.
Opposition quickly shifted from explicit racial exclusions to workarounds designed to evade constitutional language while preserving white political control.
Enforcement Power and the Federal–State Relationship
Congressional enforcement authority
The 15th Amendment’s enforcement clause supports federal laws targeting racial interference with voting.
Enforcement clause: Constitutional language authorising Congress to pass laws to carry out (enforce) the amendment’s protections, increasing national power when states violate voting rights.
Limits of enforcement in practice
Federal protection depended on political will, institutional capacity, and judicial interpretation.
Even when laws existed, enforcement could be uneven, especially when local officials controlled registration and election administration.
Methods of Racial Disenfranchisement (How the 15th Was Undermined)
Formal and informal barriers
States and localities used tools that were often presented as nonracial but designed or administered to exclude Black voters:
Literacy tests and complex “understanding” clauses administered subjectively
Grandfather clauses tying eligibility to ancestors’ voting status
White primaries excluding Black voters from decisive party contests
Economic hurdles and selective registration practices
Intimidation and violence, which can suppress participation without changing formal law
These tactics highlight the difference between a constitutional right on paper and real-world access to the ballot.
This National Archives exhibit on the Voting Rights Act era emphasizes how, nearly a century after the Fifteenth Amendment, barriers like literacy tests, fees, and violence still blocked Black citizens from voting. It helps clarify the gap between a constitutional prohibition on racial discrimination and the practical mechanisms states and local officials used to suppress participation. Source
Supreme Court Interpretation and Its Consequences
Narrow readings and loopholes
Court decisions at various points treated the 15th Amendment as banning only explicit racial classifications, making it harder to challenge discriminatory systems that avoided racial terms. This contributed to long periods in which racial voting discrimination persisted despite the amendment’s text.
The constitutional significance for AP Government
The 15th Amendment is a key example of rights expansion through amendments and the continuing struggle over implementation.
It illustrates how states administer elections but can be constrained when administration becomes a vehicle for unconstitutional discrimination.
FAQ
It is generally framed as a prohibition: government cannot deny or abridge voting on specified racial grounds.
This wording has affected litigation by focusing disputes on whether a particular rule is “on account of” race.
Historically, Congress has used the clause to authorise federal criminal penalties, civil remedies, and federal oversight mechanisms.
Debates often turn on how directly a law must target racial discrimination to be considered “appropriate.”
They involved party rules rather than explicit state statutes, prompting disputes about whether exclusion was “state action.”
That boundary mattered because constitutional constraints typically apply to governmental, not purely private, conduct.
The text focuses on race and colour, but language-based exclusions can intersect with racial or ethnic discrimination depending on context and legal framing.
Whether a challenge succeeds can depend on evidence linking the practice to racial discrimination.
Felon disenfranchisement is usually defended as nonracial on its face, so 15th Amendment claims often require proof of discriminatory intent or administration.
Separate constitutional and statutory arguments may be used depending on the facts and jurisdiction.
Practice Questions
(2 marks) Identify one constitutional protection created by the Fifteenth Amendment and briefly describe its purpose.
1 mark: Identifies the protection (cannot deny/abridge voting rights due to race/colour/previous condition of servitude).
1 mark: Describes purpose (to protect African American men/Black voters from racial disenfranchisement and expand political participation).
(6 marks) Explain how the Fifteenth Amendment both expanded voting rights and still allowed racial discrimination in voting to persist. In your answer, refer to enforcement and at least one method used to undermine the amendment.
1 mark: Explains expansion (constitutional ban on racial denial/abridgement of voting).
1 mark: Explains enforcement feature (Congress may enforce via appropriate legislation).
1 mark: Explains practical enforcement limits (uneven enforcement/political will/state control of election administration).
1 mark: Identifies one undermining method (e.g., literacy tests, grandfather clauses, white primaries, intimidation).
1 mark: Explains how that method evaded the amendment (race-neutral framing/selective administration/extra-legal coercion).
1 mark: Connects to persistence of discrimination despite formal constitutional protection.
