Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The 1870 amendment prohibits the United States and its states from denying or abridging citizens’ voting rights because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Enforcement Clause: A constitutional provision authorizing Congress to enforce a constitutional amendment through appropriate legislation. It gives Congress authority to address violations of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Reconstruction era: The period after the American Civil War when the United States rebuilt the South and contested the rights of formerly enslaved people. The amendment was one of Reconstruction’s defining constitutional changes.
African-American officeholders during Reconstruction: Black men elected or appointed to public office in the United States during Reconstruction, including state and federal legislators. Expanded Black male suffrage enabled unprecedented political representation.
United States Constitution: The supreme law of the United States, establishing the federal government and limiting governmental power. The amendment operates as part of the Constitution’s framework for limiting state election rules.
Racial gerrymandering: The deliberate use of race in drawing electoral district boundaries, subject to constitutional limits. Cases ask when district design abridges voting rights because of race.
Voting Rights Act of 1965: A federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and establishing federal oversight in jurisdictions with histories of exclusion. Congress used its enforcement power to counter practices that evaded the amendment’s guarantee.
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution: The 1865 amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime. Its abolition of slavery made the phrase “previous condition of servitude” central to the later voting guarantee.
Ku Klux Klan: A white supremacist terrorist organization founded after the Civil War that used violence to oppose Reconstruction and Black political power. Its terror targeted Black voters and officials protected by the amendment.
Voting rights in the United States: The legal rules and political struggles governing who may vote in elections in the United States. The amendment is a central but limited part of the broader history of voting rights.
Vote dilution: An electoral arrangement that weakens a group’s ability to elect preferred candidates without necessarily denying anyone a ballot. The amendment’s reach over diluted political power remains contested.

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