The Fifteenth Amendment

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.

And the final amendment of the block of amendments which went into effect following the end of the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of slavery in the United States.  This amendment to the constitution further spelled out the fact that all citizens of the United States were allowed to vote regardless of any means such as race, color or condition of previous servitude.  This however still did not give women the right to vote that we will explore later.  The freed slaves were now able to vote as were the free men who were not slaves.  Although the southern states imposed a variety of means to prevent the voting of the newly freed citizens their right to vote in upcoming elections was well established.

The Symbolic Nature of the Black Vote

As we can see by this grave marker the symbolic nature of being the first person to vote under the fifteenth amendment in New Jersey is preserved in stone at a New Jersey cemetery.  This grave marker and the accompanied history show that although African Americans were looked upon as being incapable of civic duty and voting this man was a custodian of the school which was named after him, an avid Republican and also the first black man to serve on a jury in the city.  Quite a lot for a person to do in the month and change following final ratification on February 3, 1870!

The levels of Black Voting??

In this picture we can see that there are essential three different levels of black men allowed to vote via the 15th amendment.  The first to put their vote in the ballot jar is that of the farm hand or average black man.  You can tell by his tattered clothing and whatnot that he is a working man probably in the south.  The second is more than likely a free man from the north as his clothing is very different and distinguished amonst the other two.  The third person to vote, and more than likely the one who earned the right more than any of the other three is the soldier in the rear.  Out of these three men the entire embodiment of the black man is portrayed as being able to and about to cast their vote in the current election.