Voting rights in the United States

In United States History, there have been three similar, but somewhat separate, movements for voting rights. Each has brought about an amendment to the United States Constitution, and each has been a product of, and also brought about, social change.

National milestones of franchise extension

Landless white men: 1856
Non-whites: 1870
Women: 1920
Native Americans: 1924
Adults between 18 and 21: 1971

Movements

African Americans

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, one of three adopted in response to the American Civil War, prevented any state from denying the right to vote to any male citizen twenty-one years old or older on account of his race. Particularly in the South, however, many practical barriers were erected to this becoming a reality. Most abused was the literacy test. The ability to read and write the English language was not banned as a basis for determining voter eligibility by this amendment and blacks were often denied the right to vote on this basis. Even literate blacks were often told they had "failed" such a test, if in fact, it had even actually been administered. On the other hand, illiterate whites were often allowed to vote through a "Grandfather clause" which waived literacy requirments if one's grandfather had been a qualified voter, which for most blacks in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War was an impossibility. Selective enforcement of the poll tax was frequently also used to disqualify black voters, a fact which led to the eventual adoption of the Twenty-fourth Amendment. Intimidation tactics were employed to bar blacks from voting as well, such as "night rides" by the Ku Klux Klan. Economic tactics such as eviction from rental housing or termination of employment were also used . Such practices did not fully end until the American Civil Rights Movement, which scored one of its greatest triumphs when it encouraged the passage by Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Women

A women's parallel, yet separate, movement was that for women's suffrage. In some ways this, too, could be said to have grown out of the American Civil War, as women were some of the most visible leaders in the Abolition movement. This led to more political activism on the part of middle and upper class women generally. Another political movement that was largely driven by women in the same era was the anti-alcohol Temperance movement, which eventually led to the Eighteenth Amendment and Prohibition. Outstanding leaders of the suffrage movement included Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Wyoming became the first state to allow women to vote on the same basis as men, but the issue was left to the states until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which became effective in time to allow the voting by women nationally in the Presidential election of 1920.

Young people

A third voting rights movement was the movement in the 1960s to require the voting age to be lowered to eighteen from twenty-one. This movement was given far greater impetus by the Vietnam War, as it was noted that most of the young men who were being drafted to fight in it were too young to have any voice in the selection of the leaders who were sending them to fight. This, too, had previously been a state issue, as several states, notably Georgia, Kentucky, and Hawaii, had already allowed voting at a younger age than twenty-one. The Twenty-sixth Amendment required all states to set their voting age at no higher than eighteen (as of 2004 no state has opted for an earlier age, although some have discussed it).

Voting rights today

The most important concerns for voting rights in the United States today are with regard to the continuing lack of voting rights in the nation's capital, Washington, DC, where over half a million citizen-residents still have neither effective local control nor representation in the U.S. House or Senate; with regard to voting rights (or accessibility) for those who are disabled; and with regard to voting rights for those whose primary language is not English. Federal legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA, or "Motor-Voter Act") and the Help America Vote Act of 2001 (HAVA) address some of these concerns of the disabled and non-English speaking. The Twenty-third Amendment gave the District of Columbia three electors and hence the right to vote for President. In 1978, Congress sent to the states for ratification another constitutional amendment which would have allowed the District representation in the Congress as well, but this proposed amendment had a seven-year time limit in which to be ratified and failed to receive the assent of the necessary three-quarters of the states by 1985. Since that time, Congress has consistently refused to pass along to the states for ratification another constitutional amendment which would give District of Columbia residents either representation in both the Senate and the House as if the District were a state or, as has also been proposed, voting representation in the House only. Additionally, Congress has continued to use its Constitutionally-granted jurisidiction over the District "in all cases whatsoever" to countermand the expressed will of District voters through officials they have elected. For this reason, many Washington residents call their city "The Last Colony", the home of "taxation without representation".