Which amendment granted voting rights to all male citizens regardless of race?

Which amendment granted voting rights to all male citizens regardless of race?

• A. 15th Amendment
• B. 13th Amendment
• C. 19th Amendment
• D. 14th Amendment

Answer: (A)

Extending voting rights to all male citizens regardless of race is about prohibiting race-based limits on the vote. The Fifteenth Amendment does exactly that: it says the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Ratified after the Civil War, it aimed to protect Black men’s suffrage, though it took many more years and further laws to fully enforce it in practice. The other amendments address different ideas—slavery’s abolition, citizenship and equal protection, and women’s suffrage—so they don’t fulfill the specific idea of voting rights extending to all male citizens regardless of race.

Extending voting rights to all male citizens regardless of race is about prohibiting race-based limits on the vote. The Fifteenth Amendment does exactly that: it says the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Ratified after the Civil War, it aimed to protect Black men’s suffrage, though it took many more years and further laws to fully enforce it in practice. The other amendments address different ideas—slavery’s abolition, citizenship and equal protection, and women’s suffrage—so they don’t fulfill the specific idea of voting rights extending to all male citizens regardless of race.