Constitution
Amendment 15: Voting Rights Regardless of Race
Text from National Archives. Explanation last updated September 29, 2026. How we check this
Banaka study guide
In plain English
The Fifteenth Amendment says the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Congress has power to enforce it by appropriate legislation.
It was ratified on February 3, 1870, and was aimed at securing the vote for Black men after the Civil War. It did not address sex and did not guarantee a right to vote in itself, but it barred those specific grounds of denial.
The text
As printed by the source cited at the end of this page, with its original spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
Section 1
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--
Section 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Explained section by section
No denial “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
The amendment does not say every citizen has a right to vote. It prohibits denying or abridging the right on three named grounds. That wording left states free to set other qualifications, and after Reconstruction many used literacy tests, poll taxes and violence to keep Black citizens from voting without mentioning race.
Enforcement power
Section 2 gave Congress the power to pass enforcement legislation. Congress used it in the 1870s and much later in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which targeted the practices that had evaded the amendment for nearly a century.
Context and current status
Congress passed the amendment on February 26, 1869 and it was ratified on February 3, 1870. It was the last of the three Reconstruction Amendments.
Its promise was not fully realized for decades. Later amendments extended the vote further: the Nineteenth in 1920 (sex), the Twenty-Fourth in 1964 (poll taxes in federal elections) and the Twenty-Sixth in 1971 (age eighteen). Current textual status: in force.
Terms to know
- Abridge
- To reduce or limit a right.
- Previous condition of servitude
- A reference to having been enslaved.
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- A federal law enacted under the enforcement power to stop racial discrimination in voting.
Common misconceptions
“The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed every American the right to vote.”
It banned denial on account of race, color or previous servitude. Women, for example, were not covered until the Nineteenth Amendment, and states kept setting other qualifications.
How it connects
Links to related provisions and documents, with the reason each one matters here.
- Amendment 19Women's Right to VoteThe Nineteenth Amendment extended the vote on the ground of sex, a category the Fifteenth did not cover.
- Amendment 14Citizenship, Due Process and Equal ProtectionSection 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment dealt with voting rights indirectly before the Fifteenth addressed them directly.
- Amendment 26Voting Age of EighteenThe Twenty-Sixth Amendment continues the pattern of using amendments to widen the electorate.
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Sources and corrections
- Text: National Archives. Checked against the source on September 29, 2026.National Archives transcription of the engrossed Constitution, with original spelling and capitalization. The signature block and the Convention's interlineation note are not reproduced.
- Amendments 11-27: A Transcription — National Archives
- 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870) — National Archives
Educational material, not legal advice. Spotted a mistake? Tell us; corrections change this page’s update date.