Voting Rights
When the American colonists declared their independence from Great Britain in
1776, their struggle to create a representative government was just beginning. The
state constitutions that were drafted at that time established voting rights, but only
for certain citizens. Voting rights established by the Articles of Confederation were
similarly restricted.
Even the new Constitution that replaced the Articles in 1788 did not extend
voting rights to many groups of people living in the new United States. As the
Constitution has been amended over the years however, things changed. The
right to vote was gradually extended to more and more citizens, enabling
them to participate in local and national government.
1789
MALE PROPERTY OWNERS
In the early years of the United States, property qualifications were
relaxed in some states (Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina,
Georgia, and Vermont) to include all male taxpayers. With few
exceptions, women were not allowed to vote. Most state constitu-
tions also required that a voting male be at least 21 years of age.
Those who qualified to vote were generally white, although
some states allowed free African Americans to vote.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES
The Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution attempted to guarantee
African-American males the right to vote
by stating that the right of U.S. citizens
“to vote shall not be denied or abridged
[limited] by the United States or by any
state on account of race, color, or previ-
ous condition of servitude.” The picture
to the left shows African-American males
voting in a state election in 1867. African-
American males, however, were often
kept from voting through the use of poll
taxes, which were finally abolished by the
Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964, and
literacy tests, which were suspended by
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1870
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