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First stage of equality.
White men with property have the right to vote but Catholics, Jews, Quakers and others are barred from voting. -
New Hampshire eliminates property ownership requirements, which gives more white men the opportunity to vote.
New Hampshire becomes the first state to eliminate the rule that only property owners and taxpayers can vote. Following New Hampshire's lead, other states begin to shift away from such restrictions in an effort to open the electorate to more white males. -
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the Mexican American War, giving Mexicans in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas U.S. citizenship.
Mexicans living in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Nevada are guaranteed U.S. citizenship in 1848, but their voting rights are denied when English proficiency is required to vote. Property and literacy requirements are imposed to keep them from voting, along with violence and intimidation. -
Civil rights act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 grants citizenship, but not the right to vote, to all native-born Americans. The Republican-dominated United States Congress passed the act in March 1866, as a counterattack against the Black Codes in the southern United States, which had been recently enacted by all former slave states following the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. -
African american attempt?
The Louisiana Republican Party platform includes a plank embracing equality for African Americans. John W. Menard is elected to Congress from Louisiana but is barred from taking his seat by white members of Congress. Oscar J. Dunn, a former slave, is elected lieutenant governor of Louisiana. This was a pivoal step in getting african americans the right to vote. -
Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment giving African American men the equal right to vote.
The Fifteenth Amendment states: "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. "In addition to the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolishes slavery and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law, the Fifteenth Amendment is one of the major tools which enabled African Americans to more fully participate in democracy. -
Black elects
Hiram Revels is the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate and Joseph Hayne Rainey becomes the first African American member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Jasper J. Wright is elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. -
chinese exclusion
Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act denying citizenship and voting rights to Chinese Americans. -
Native american denied
The court rules that John Elk a native american from Nebraska, is not allowed to vote in Nebraska because his intention to become a citizen requires approval from the United States. The court also states that Elk is not a citizen because he does not "owe allegiance to the United States," and that the Fifteenth Amendment does not apply to him. -
Native American Compromise?
Congress passes the Dawes General Allotment Act which grants citizenship only to those Native Americans who give up their tribal affiliations. -
Indian Naturlization Act
The Indian Naturalization Act grants citizenship to Native Americans by an application process. Therefore giving Native Americans the right to equality. -
Opsahl v. Johnson
The Minnesota Supreme Court rules that members of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe cannot participate in county elections because tribal members have not "yielded obedience and submission to the [Minnesota] laws." -
Woman gain voting rights
Voting rights for women were first proposed in July 1848, at the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention organized by suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott. It took 72 years of protest and activism for the Nineteenth Amendment to become law. The measure was ratified by a single vote margin in the Tennessee state legislature on August 18, 1920 and national law became eight days later. -
Chinese get right to vote
In a major civil rights victory, the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed, giving Chinese immigrants the right to citizenship and the right to vote. -
Attack on Marchers
An unprovoked attack by state troopers on peaceful marchers in Selma Alabama persuaded the President and Congress to overcome Southern legislators' resistance to effective voting rights legislation. -
Act is signed
Congress determined that the existing federal anti-discrimination laws were not sufficient to overcome the resistance by state officials to enforcement of the 15th Amendment. President Johnson signed section 2 on the voting rights act of the Act, which closely followed the language of the 15th amendment, applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on the literacy tests on a nationwide basis. -
Final piece of puzzle
With laws saying that any race and gender can vote, barring that they are U.S citizens the final piece of the puzzle gets put in place, when the legal voting age becomes 18.
