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Dred Scott vs Sandford
The Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, either if they were free citizen or a slave, were not identified as American citizens and could not sue in court. They also put into place that Congress lacked the power to ban slavery. Scott was once a slave that go moved to a state that slavery was banned. Eventually Scott and his family wanted to buy their freedom from Sanford but he kept denying. Eventually State Courts ruled that Scott was able to be free because he was in a free territory. S3 -
13th Amendment
This amendment completely abolished slavery and authorized Congress to pass legislation implementing its abolition. This leads up to the 15th amendment because this is the first breakthrough that the African Americans get. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment are mostly based on the African Americans getting a little bit more of rights. S1 -
First Reconstruction Act
This act followed the American civil war. The Republican-dominated U.S. Congress passed the first reconstruction act, over President Andrew Johnson's veto, the act had two parts: it divided the military into 5 districts. The next part was that the new government needed to be based on a universal manhood suffrage were to be established. S2 -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment granted citizenship to all person born or naturalized in the U.S.. It also banned states from denying any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Lastly, banned states form denying any person equal protection under the laws. In summary it stated that all people (including African Americans) who were born in the country were citizens. This amendment was put in when our country was healing itself for the civil war. S1 -
What is the 15th Amendment?
The 15th Amendment extended voting rights to African Americans males by outlawing denial of the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Basically saying that whoever you were, if you were old enough then you were eligible to vote. S4 -
Ratification of the 15th Amendment
With the adoption of the 15th amendment, we can thank black voters when the amendment was first put into place due to a African American community joined with white allies in Southern states to elect the Republican Party to power. Brought changes to the south. S5 -
Republican Party
After the Republican Party was elected due to the black votes, the Confederate states eventually readmitted to the Union. Most of them were controlled by the Republican Party, mainly all because of all the male black voters. One significant moment is when Thomas Mundy Peterson became the first African American to vote under the 15th Amendment. Another moment is when Hiram Rhoades Revels, became the first African American to sit in Congress, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. S2 -
Attacking the 15th Amendment
Reports about continuing discriminatory voting practices in Southern states. President Lyndon Johnson was a southerner that urged Congress to pass legislation that would make it impossible to prevent the action of the 15th Amendment. Johnson reminded Congress that there will be no government for "all" the people unless we make the government by and of the people. S2 -
Voting Rights Act
A few months after, Lyndon noticed more discriminatory acts taking action and knew he had to do more about it. He signed the Voting Rights Act into place on August 6th. The Voting Rights Act was put into place to overcome legal barriers at state and local levels that denied African Americans their right to vote under the 15th Amendment. S2 -
Why Blacks wouldn't and couldn't vote!
With the 15th amendment in place. Many states did not accept and were definitely going to try and find away around it. There were two main things that the states put into place was before the African Americans could vote, they were to take a literacy test which was very difficult for them because they never went to school because of slavery and segregation. The second method was poll taxes. This was a huge part because the blacks in the past rarely got paid or just very little amounts. S2
