Extending Suffrage

When the United States first gained independence from Britain, it was supposedly a democracy. However, originally voting rights were limited to only a small portion of the population. For the most part, only white males who owned property were allowed to vote, although a few states allowed free African Americans to vote.

It wasn’t until the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 that all black people were granted suffrage. Despite officially being allowed to vote, many African Americans were prevented from voting by poll taxes and literacy tests. The literacy tests required a person to prove that they were literate before they could vote. The system was very biased, and black people were often asked much harder questions than white people. Poll taxes and literacy tests were banned in 1964 and 1965 respectively.

Fifty years later, women gained the right to vote through the 19^th Amendment. In 1924, four years after women were granted voting rights, Native Americans were given citizenship, which came with the right to vote.

Up until 1971, the minimum voting age was 21. However, during the Vietnam War (1960’s), people started questioning whether it was fair that 18-year-olds can be forced to go to war but didn’t have the right to vote. The 26^th Amendment lowered the legal voting age to 18.

The system that has been developed over the years remains to this day.

Written by Erin