Question

How did the Fifteenth Amendment and the 1960s civil rights laws extend voting rights to more Americans?

Summarize what you have learned in three to four full sentences.

Answer 1

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prohibited denying a citizen the vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, nominally extending suffrage to formerly enslaved men after the Civil War. For nearly a century, Southern states used poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence to prevent Black Americans from voting despite that amendment. In the 1960s, landmark laws and actions—most importantly the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 24th Amendment (1964) ending poll taxes in federal elections, and especially the Voting Rights Act of 1965—outlawed discriminatory tests and practices and authorized federal enforcement and oversight. Those measures removed many legal and practical barriers and led to a large increase in voter registration and participation among Black Americans.