Amendment XV: Is Voting Privilege or Right?

Section 1
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude —
Section 2
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

This amendment, the third installment of President Lincoln's New Birth of Freedom, gave citizens the right to vote. Previously only landowners could vote, which means essentially only white males could vote. The vote was seen as being needed to be given to the newly freed slaves so that they become complete citizens. There was a few separate camps on how to accomplish this: one major one was advocating the allocation of land to the freed slaves. This presented a problem because it brought up the question, "Where is this land going to come from?". The answer was primarily Southern plantation owners and that did not please the South, therefore this current solution was promoted. Instead of requiring them to have land (and therefore more influence) the vote was simply given to any citizen. What do you think about this? Was there a better way to go about this that Congress did not see? What about just giving them land and hence the vote, where would that leave us today? Comment below!

Now that black men (and all men) have the right to vote, what are some policies that would change with the huge influx of votes? How would politicians campaign and what would the separate groups be focused on?

This video addresses some of the other things going on with the 15th amendment, with a good soundtrack. It also shows that there is still work that is being done to continue the progress made by this amendment.

If you want to learn more about this amendment, click here.