States retained the power in regards to suffrage, but they could not run afoul the
Fifteenth Amendment and the VRA.
adoption of the
Fifteenth Amendment as well as petitioning the Board of
22) While giving a ringing endorsement in dicta to the "one pervading purpose" of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments as the "freedom of the slave race, the security and firm establishment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly made freeman and citizen from the oppressions of those who had formerly exercised unlimited dominion over him," (23) the Court in fact began a tradition of reading the amendments narrowly.
Attacks on the marchers by state troopers and others prompted the Johnson Administration to intervene and, shortly thereafter, to propose a voting rights law that called for direct federal intervention to uphold the guarantees of the
Fifteenth Amendment.
91) Given his view that the
Fifteenth Amendment "substantially guaranties [sic] the equal right to vote to citizens of every race and color," Bradley was "inclined to the opinion that congress has the power to secure that right not only against the unfriendly operation of state laws, but against outrage, violence, and combinations on the part of individuals, irrespective of the state laws.
55 (1980); see also Primary Documents in American History: The
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, http://www.
Ginzberg employs a similar tactic, pulling directly from the Revolution to accumulate evidence for "the Reconstruction-era schism" between suffragists who supported the
Fifteenth Amendment and those, like Stanton, who opposed it (130).
A group of Ohio politicians visited Grant and told him that if he had federal troops enforce the
Fifteenth Amendment in Mississippi, it would be so unpopular in Ohio that the Democrats would win there.
Klan violence spiraled out of control, and Congress responded by passing a series of federal acts to enforce the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth amendments.
That was when Khaleda said the
fifteenth amendment had turned the Constitution into a manifesto for the Awami League, which would throw the Constitution into the trash.
15) For this reason, the
Fifteenth Amendment (16) was necessary to give African-American men the right to vote.
Such qualifications aside, Malone has offered compelling insight into a neglected chapter in the history of the black franchise before the
Fifteenth Amendment.
