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Granted African Americans the right to vote and prevented the states from depriving one's voting rights because of their race or color.
This amendment marked the first time that the U.S. Constitution dictated rules to the states about who they must allow to vote. -
Only voters whose grandfathers had voted before 1867 can vote without paying tax or passing a literacy test.
This allowed potential white voters to circumvent literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tactics designed to disenfranchise southern blacks.
Declared unconstitutional in 1915 (Guinn v. United States). -
Women suffrage was allowed nationwide.
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Prohibited any poll tax in elections for federal officials.
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Outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.
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Prohibited the use of the poll tax in state elections.
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Extended the Voting Rights Act for five years.
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Lowered voting age to 18.
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Extended Voting Rights Act for seven more years.
Also expanded voting rights for minority groups such as Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Alaskans, and Native Americans. -
A 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Ronald Reagan.
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Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years.
But gerrymandering by some states caused discriminated voters to have a disproportionally small amount of political power. -
The Supreme Court ruled that the formula Congress used to decide which states had to follow the special regulations in the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional because the formula was based on discrimination in place over 40 years ago.
