Race in America and the Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment

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Race in America And The Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment The following essay will overview and analyze the historical moment in American history relative to race, the fifteenth amendment (1870). Pulling from Souls of a Black Folk (DuBois, 1903) the analysis of the fifteenth amendment will also be supplemented by various journal articles. Taking into consideration W.E.B. DuBois’ quote from Souls Of A Black Folk, “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line”, such a quote foregrounds the message and tone of this essay, with its ultimate purpose being to have a better understanding of this nation’s journey to meet its promise of freedom and democracy for all citizens. The Fifteenth Amendment in the U.S. constitution was ratified in 1870 on the third of February. The amendment forbids the denial of a U.S. citizen’s right to vote based on the grounds of someone’s race. The fifteenth amendment was put in place as a reconstruction amendment, one of three in the U.S. constitution. This amendment applies to both state and federal government, both are never to use any citizen’s racial profile, color of their skin, or history of being a slave affect their right to vote or not. During this ratification of the fifteenth amendment, any and all American citizens of the following states were considered free to vote with no racial requirements: North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The fifteenth amendment came at the perfect time, the country was highly fragmented during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential election, a nation truly torn from war. For example of the country’s fragmentation based on race, the journal article titled Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, stated, “Voting rights for freed blacks proved a big problem. Reconstruction Acts passed after the war called for black suffrage in the Southern states, but

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