What role did African Americans play in the push for the Fifteenth Amendment?
About this video
Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and became a leading advocate for equal civil rights and political power through the Colored National Convention. He valued the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, but argued that Black Americans most needed the vote in every state, since the Reconstruction Acts covered only the South and most Northern states still denied Black suffrage. He led the push for the 15th Amendment.
You'll be able to
- explain why Frederick Douglass thought the right to vote was essential.
- describe the gap in voting rights that remained after the Reconstruction Acts.
Key words
- Colored National Convention
- A gathering of Black leaders advocating for rights and political power.
- enfranchise
- To give someone the right to vote.
- suffrage
- The right to vote.
- color bar
- A barrier that keeps people out because of their race.
Transcript
[MUSIC] Frederick Douglass. Escaped from slavery and became one of the most effective advocates for equal civil rights regardless of race in American history. Frederick Douglass was part of what was called at that time, the Colored National Convention. He was an advocate not only for the end of slavery, but he also was an advocate for political power.
According to Frederick Douglass, first of all, slavery needed to end, and equal rights needed to be established because those were the principles of our foundational documents. America had been tilted towards freedom from the beginning, and it's time for us to recognize that fact and end the abomination of slavery. But more than that, Frederick Douglass appreciated the efforts of the Republicans in passing the 14th Amendment, in enfranchising Black Americans in the South, in passing legislation like the 1866 Civil Rights Act. But according to Frederick Douglass, what we need more than anything else is the right to vote in every state in the union. Allow us to protect ourselves, allow us to become equal participants in the political process by finally getting rid of the color bar when it comes to the right to vote. Now, what happened at the end of the 14th Amendment is that
the Reconstruction Acts allowed Black Americans in the Southern states to vote on new elections and to vote on whether or not to ratify the 14th Amendment, but it didn't give them any right to vote beyond that particular circumstance. Meanwhile, Black Americans in the North were still denied the right to vote. They had not been enslaved in the Northern states for many decades, but Northern states with a very few exceptions, denied the rights of suffrage to Black Americans even in the Free North.
According to Frederick Douglass, the one thing that needs to be done that has not yet been done is to give Black Americans the right to vote wherever they live in the United States. He led the movement towards the adoption of the 15th Amendment and the removal of the color bar when it came to the right to vote. [MUSIC]
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