What did the passage of the 15th Amendment during the Reconstruction Era accomplish?
A It blocked states from denying any citizen equal rights.
B It outlawed voting discrimination based on race.
C It barred discrimination in hiring procedures.
D It prohibited slavery in the United States.
The correct answer is B) It outlawed voting discrimination based on race.
The 15th amendment made it so that newly freed black men could vote in elections. This era of Reconstruction resulted in a significant amount of black men voting and being elected to office in the Southern states. However, this new found political freedom would not last thanks to the end of Reconstruction in 1877. After this time, Southern states implemented barriers to voting like poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests to prevent black men from voting.
The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was enacted in 1970, during the Reconstruction Era. It prohibits the federal goverment, and other goverment administrations at the state level, to deny any US citizen the right to vote because of their race, color of skin and previous condition of servitude.
