When was the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified?
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish certified the amendment on the 30th of March 1870. Nevada became the first state to ratify the amendment on the 1st of March 1869.
Questions about Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who proposed the compromise version of the Fifteenth Amendment in Congress?
Republicans proposed a compromise amendment which would ban franchise restrictions on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude on the 26th of February 1869. This proposal emerged from a political calculation regarding congressional representation after the election of Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency in 1868.
What did the Supreme Court rule in United States v. Reese regarding the Fifteenth Amendment?
In United States v. Reese decided in 1876, the Court interpreted the amendment narrowly and upheld ostensibly race-neutral limitations on suffrage including poll taxes and literacy tests. The ruling allowed grandfather clauses that exempted citizens from other voting requirements if their grandfathers had been registered voters.
Why did the women's suffrage movement split over the Fifteenth Amendment?
The final version of the amendment omitted references to sex which further splintered the women's suffrage movement. The American Equal Rights Association split into two rival organizations with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposing the amendment while Lucy Stone and Henry Browne Blackwell supported it.
How many states were required to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment for it to become law?
Twenty-nine ratifying states were needed because this number was one more than the required twenty-eight ratifications from the thirty-seven states. Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas ratified the amendment in February 1870 bringing the total to twenty-nine.