When did black people get the right to vote in the United States?

Alethea101

Amendment XV to the U.S. Constitution - Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870. "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." Feb 12 07, 12:32 AM

queproblema

Amendment XV did give black people the right to vote in 1870, and some used it right away, electing state and federal senators and representatives. Jim Crow quickly snatched away that right for all practical purposes, however, as poll taxes and literacy tests--and Klansmen--denied blacks that fundamental right. President Johnson's Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the true turning point in the USA's history of beginning to embrace blacks as full citizens with equal rights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Civil_Rights_Act Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_the_United_States_Congress Feb 12 07, 1:29 AM

jinhu1

The answer actually depends upon where in the United States you are talking about. Free Blacks had the right to vote and actually held various elected offices throughout the North from the very beginning. The slaves states of the South did not allow blacks to vote, or do much of anything. The ratification of the 15th Amendment codified the right throughout the United States. The Jim Crow laws of the South were an attempt to avert the 15th Amendment until the Civil Rights Acts of the 1950's and finally of 1964 put an end to those laws, if not to the racist views, of the Southern States. Jun 26 10, 6:25 PM

mango-dumpling

Actually, the Civil rights act of 1964 did not grant the vote to African-Americans. I do believe that what did grant the vote was President Johnson's Voting Rights act of 1965. This happened after marchers protesting against segregation and to be granted the right to vote were violently attacked by white segregationists who were trying to stop the protest. The marchers were planning to go from Selma to Montgomery. They later succeeded at walking to Montgomery, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "address at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March" on march 25th, 1965. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b.php http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_address_at_the_conclusion_of_selma_march Feb 24 12, 2:03 PM