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The US Voting Rights Timeline

  • 15th Amendment

    15th Amendment

    The 15th Amendment is the right to vote no matter race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This only gave African American men the right to vote and not women. The South found a way around the amendment with Literacy Tests, the Grandfather Clause, and poll taxes. African American Suffrage
  • 19th Amendment

    19th Amendment

    The 19th Amendment states that you cannot deny someone the right to vote because of sex. Congress has the power to enforce this amendment with the proper legislation needed. Women's Suffrage
  • Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

    Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

    This act states that any Native American that was born or is to be born in the US, will be considered US citizens. This was put in place because they were not included in the 14th Amendment. Indian Citizenship Act
  • McCarran-Walter Act

    McCarran-Walter Act

    The Immigration and Nationally Act also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, was passed in an attempt to reform immigration laws. "Retained the national origins quotas as the core principle for controlling immigration. It completely removed the racial restrictions on citizenship by naturalization." This relates to voting because it gave Asian-Americans the right to vote. INA
  • 24th Amendment

    24th Amendment

    The 24th Amendment abolished poll tax, saying you cannot deny someone the right to vote if they cannot pay poll taxes or other taxes. It also says that Congress has the power to enforce this with appropriate legislation. 24th Amendment
  • Freedom Summer

    Freedom Summer

    This was a grassroots movement started by the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) which found violent resistance by segregationists, in very rural parts of Mississippi. The Freedom Summer project was a grassroots movement that was designed to draw the nation’s attention to the violent oppression experienced by Mississippi blacks who attempted to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Freedom Summer
  • The Voting Rights Act of 1965

    The Voting Rights Act of 1965

    This act banned the discriminatory voting practices that were used in the South after the Civil War. It outlawed the usage of literacy tests and more. This act was put in place to enforce the 15th Amendment since many southern states started to find loopholes around it. Voting Rights Act
  • 26th Amendment

    26th Amendment

    This amendment states that citizens over the age of 18 cannot be denied the right to vote because of their age. this law was talked about during WW2 but wasn't an issue until the Vietnam War. "Old enough to Fight, Old enough to Vote"26th Amendment
  • Help America Vote Act

    Help America Vote Act

    This act was passed to make reforms to the nation's voting process. It improves provisional voting and voting information, and it helps states update and get upgraded voting equipment, statewide voter registration databases, voter identification procedures, and administrative complaint procedures. HAVA
  • MOVE Act

    MOVE Act

    The act was passed to expand the UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act). This provided more protections to servicemembers their families and overseas citizens. The big change that came from this was states were required to send absentee ballots to voters covered by UOCAVA no later than 45 days before federal elections. MOVE