African Americans & the Franchise

Alfred R. Waud.

"The First Vote."

From Harper's Weekly, November 16, 1867. Copyprint.

Prints and Photographs Division.

Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-19234 (5-21)

The Fifteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, ratified March 30, 1870, provided that all male citizens were entitled to vote. Because the black population was so large in many parts of the South, whites were fearful of their participation in the political process. Nevertheless, the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress were determined that African Americans be accorded all of the rights of citizenship.