How else have voting rights been protected and expanded?
How else have voting rights been protected and expanded?
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The Story of the 24th amendment
The Story of the 24th amendment
After the passage of the 15th amendment in 1870, voting rights were technically protected for all men. However, let's look again at the text of the 15th amendment. It states that the right to vote cannot be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. So a state cannot make a law that says someone can't vote based on what race or color they are, or that they used to be a slave.
But they can make laws denying the right to vote based on other things. And many states did.
Discrimination at the Polls
Discrimination at the Polls
In order to get around the 15th amendment and keep certain people (mostly Black Americans) from voting, some states passed what were known as Jim Crow Laws. These laws usually contained ridiculous requirements for people to be able to vote. Many states used "literacy tests," that voters had to pass before they could be allowed to vote.
Click through the images to see examples of literacy tests as well as a political cartoon about them.
The Poll Tax
The Poll Tax
A "polling place" or sometimes called "the polls" is a place that someone goes to vote. In addition to literacy tests, some states put in place a Poll Tax, which was a tax that someone had to pay in order to vote. In today's terms, the poll tax would have been about $50 for each voter. Naturally, many people did not have the money to spend on voting, so many people were unable to participate in the voting process because of poll taxes.
Ending the Poll Tax
Ending the Poll Tax
The 24th amendment ended the poll tax. It reads:
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. "
Basically this says that the states cannot deny the right to vote based on failure to pay. Thus, opening up the right to vote to more Americans.
Time to Write! Fill in the description of the 14th amendment and define poll tax. Then, click on the thing that kept many people from voting after the passage of the 15th amendment to break out to your final page!
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