"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."

The 15th Amendment of the United StatesConstitution of theUnited States of America was ratified on February 3, 1870, during the period referred to as the post-Civil War Reconstruction. Although, on paper, the amendment offered radical freedom and enfranchisement for newly freed slaves after the Civil War, local and state legislation as well as other unofficial social practices prevented most minority U.S. citizens from utilizing their constitutional right to vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and racist registrars, as well as threats from extremist groups kept most Blacks from voting until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress and signed by Lyndon Baines Johnson on August 6, 1965.