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Constitution is ratified
Only white male adult property-owners have the right to vote. -
Religious qualifications dropped
Last religious prerequisite for voting is eliminated. -
Property requirements dropped
Property ownership and tax requirements eliminated by 1850. Almost all adult white males could vote. -
15th Amendment
Connecticut adopts the nation's first literacy test for voting. Massachusetts follows suit in 1857. The tests were implemented to discriminate against Irish-Catholic immigrants. -
19th Amendment
The 15th Amendment is passed. It gives former slaves the right to vote and protects the voting rights of adult male citizens of any race. -
23rd Amendment
Florida adopts a poll tax. Ten other southern states will implement poll taxes. -
24th Amendment
Mississippi adopts a literacy test to keep African Americans from voting. Numerous other states—not just in the south—also establish literacy tests. However, the tests also exclude many whites from voting. To get around this, states add grandfather clauses that allow those who could vote before 1870, or their descendants, to vote regardless of literacy or tax qualifications. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The 17th Amendment calls for members of the U.S. Senate to be elected directly by the people instead of State Legislatures. -
26th Amendment
Oklahoma was the last state to append a grandfather clause to its literacy requirement (1910). In Guinn v. United States the Supreme Court rules that the clause is in conflict with the 15th Amendment, thereby outlawing literacy tests for federal elections.