Question

The Fifteenth Amendment (select all that apply):

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct response is Option A. The Fifteenth Amendment sought to guarantee that one could not be denied suffrage rights based on race.

Explanation:

The 15th Amendment grants African-American men the right to vote and it was adopted into the U.S. Constitution in 1870. However, in practice, this was a difficult amendment to enforce. Many states, especially in the South, continued with discriminatory practices that prevented blacks from voting, like instituting poll taxes and establishing literacy requirements. These practices were not effectively repealed and prevented until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This outlawed any legal barriers at the state and local levels if they denied African-Americans their right to vote in any way under the 15th Amendment.  President Johnson was against the 14th and 15th Amendments and tried to veto them but Congress was able to pass the amendments regardless.