Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

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Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870 and states:

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 power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Interpretation and history

This amendment guarantees the right of citizens of the United States to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of slavery. But it was not really until the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that this guarantee was actually achieved in all states.

The first person to vote under the provisions of the amendment was Thomas Mundy Peterson.