Key Documents

Within 30 years after the 15th Amendment's ratification many states had devised ways to effectively bar African Americans from the polls. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was intended to "enforce the Fifteenth Amendment" nearly a century after the ratification of that amendment.

15th Amendment
Resolution Proposing a 15th Amendment, 1868

The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, promised that the right of male U.S. citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

National Archives, General Records of the U.S. Government

Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act, 1965

The Voting Rights Act prohibits the use of devices such as literacy tests to hinder or block African Americans from voting, and empowers the Attorney General to seek the overturn of poll taxes.

National Archives, General Records of the U.S. Government