Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of United States

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of United States prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".  It was ratified on February 3, 1870.

The promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

The First Vote

The Congress proposed the Fifteenth Amendment on February 26, 1869. The final vote in the Senate was 39 senators for, 13 against, and 14 absent. Several fierce advocates of equal rights, such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, abstained from voting because the amendment did not prohibit devices which states might use to restrict black suffrage, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. 

The vote in the House was 144 to 44 with 35 members not voting. The House vote was almost entirely along party lines, with no Democrats supporting the bill and only 3 Republicans voting against it. On April 9, 1869, the Congress amended a pending reconstruction bill to require Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment in order to regain representation in the Congress.
The following states ratified the amendment:

1. Nevada (March 1, 1869)
2. West Virginia (March 3, 1869)
3. Illinois (March 5, 1869)
4. Louisiana (March 5, 1869)
5. Michigan (March 5, 1869)
6. North Carolina (March 5, 1869)
7. Wisconsin (March 5, 1869)
8. Maine (March 11, 1869)
9. Massachusetts (March 12, 1869)
10. Arkansas (March 15, 1869)
11. South Carolina (March 15, 1869)
12. Pennsylvania (March 25, 1869)
13. New York (April 14, 1869, rescinded on January 5, 1870, rescinded the rescission on March 30, 1870)
14. Indiana (May 14, 1869)
15. Connecticut (May 19, 1869)
16. Florida (June 14, 1869)
17. New Hampshire (July 1, 1869)
18. Virginia (October 8, 1869) (required for representation in the Congress)
19. Vermont (October 20, 1869)
20. Alabama (November 16, 1869)
21. Missouri (January 7, 1870)
22. Minnesota (January 13, 1870)
23. Mississippi (January 17, 1870) (required for representation in the Congress)
24. Rhode Island (January 18, 1870)
25. Kansas (January 19, 1870)
26. Ohio (January 27, 1870, after having rejected it on April 30, 1869)
27. Georgia (February 2, 1870) (required for representation in the Congress)
28. Iowa (February 3, 1870)

Ratification was completed on February 3, 1870. The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states.
Nebraska (February 17, 1870)

1. Texas (February 18, 1870) (required for representation in the Congress)
2. New Jersey (February 15, 1871, after having rejected it on February 7, 1870)
3. Delaware (February 12, 1901, after having rejected it on March 18, 1869)
4. Oregon (February 24, 1959)
5. California (April 3, 1962, after having rejected it on January 28, 1870)
6. Maryland (May 7, 1973, after having rejected it on February 26, 1870)
7. Kentucky (March 18, 1976, after having rejected it on March 12, 1869)
8. Tennessee (April 2, 1997, after having rejected it on November 16, 1869)

The Fifteenth Amendment is one of the Reconstruction Amendments.

The first African American to vote after the adoption of this amendment was Thomas Mundy Peterson, who cast his ballot in a school board election held in Perth Amboy, New Jersey on March 31, 1870.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in July 1868, guaranteed basic civil rights to all citizens; it was intended to persuade Southern states to grant suffrage to blacks by threatening a reduction of their congressional representation.