Chapter Four

A Tradition of Democracy Rights and Responsibilities

~~~~~Guaranteeing Other Rights

More Additions to the Constitution

• Since the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1791, 17 other amendments have been added to the U.S. Constitution

• New amendments were passed as new circumstances and changing beliefs in the country required changes in the government

• Today the Constitution has 27 amendments• Some of these amendments expanded the

rights of U.S. citizens

Rights of U.S. CitizensCivil Rights = the rights guaranteed to all U.S.

citizens.

• The U.S. Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights, is the foundation for civil rights in America.

• Before the Civil War, protection of civil rights was left to the individual states.

Civil War AmendmentsThirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments were added after the war to protect the rights of newly freed African Americans.

13th Amendment – 1865• outlawed slavery in the United States and in all lands governed by the U.S.

• forced labor can only be used as a punishment for crime• finished job of the Emancipation Proclamation

• had only ended slavery in the Confederate states during the Civil War

14th Amendment – 1868• grants full citizenship to African Americans• intended mainly to protect the rights of African Americans

• contains rights that are important for all Americans• protects citizens against unfair actions by state governments

• like the 5th Amendment that forbids unfair federal actions• no state can take away a citizen's "life, liberty, or property,

without due process of law" • no state can deny citizens equal protection of the law

Extending Voting RightsSuffrage = The right to vote.

• six amendments deal with voting rights• 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 26th

• original Constitution made no mention of voting rights• before Civil War the states decided who could vote

• white men• over the age of 21• own a certain amount of property (gradually eliminated)• have certain religious beliefs (removed after the American Revolution)

From 1800s to 1971, several amendments to the Constitution extended suffrage (voting rights) to more U.S. citizens

Fifteenth Amendment - 1870• African American men were guaranteed the right to vote

• no person can be denied the right to vote because of race or color• late 1800s and early 1900s many states, particularly in the

South, passed laws that kept African Americans from voting

• literacy tests, poll taxes• in the 1960s Congress passed civil rights laws that finally

established equal voting rights for African Americans• Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965

Seventeenth Amendment - 1913• direct election of U.S. senators to Congress

• a state's eligible voters now elect the state's U.S. senators

• according to the Constitution, U.S. senators were originally

chosen by members of the state legislatures who had been

elected by state voters (indirect election)

Nineteenth Amendment - 1920• women gained the right to vote• voting cannot be denied because of sex

women's suffrage movement 1848-1920• long struggle for the right to vote for women• women should not be treated as second-class citizens• suffragists/suffragettes - fought for women's right to vote Susan B.

Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Wyoming became first U.S. state to give women the right to vote 1890

Twenty-Third Amendment - 1961• gave citizens living in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.)

the right to vote for president and vice president• created 3 electoral votes for D.C. so that it could participate in the

Electoral College system along with the fifty states• according to the Constitution, the Electoral College is

responsible for electing the president and vice president• before this amendment, residents of the District of Columbia had

not been able vote in national elections since the late 1700s

Twenty-Fourth Amendment - 1964• outlaws the use of a poll tax as a qualification for voting in national

elections• 1966 - Supreme Court ruled that poll taxes are also unlawful in

state elections

Poll Tax = A special tax that had to be paid in order to vote.

• Some of the American colonies had imposed poll taxes. • Beginning in the late 1800s some states required all people to pay a

special tax before they could vote. • These poll taxes were eliminated after the American Revolution only

to be reintroduced during the period following the Civil War. • Many Americans believed this tax was intended to discourage

African Americans from voting.

Voting is a free freedom!

Twenty-Sixth Amendment - 1971• lowered the voting age in national, state, and local elections to 18

• previously, most states had set the age at 21 for the first vote

• Supporters of the amendment pointed out that 18-year-olds were already considered responsible enough to be drafted to fight for their country – Vietnam War• old enough to defend democracy is old enough to participate in

democratic elections

18

VOTING RIGHTS FOR AMERICANS

AMENDMENT YEAR RATIFIED GROUP BENEFITTED

15TH 1870 Black Men

17TH 1913 All Voters

19TH 1920 Women

23RD 1961 D.C. Residents

24TH 1966 All Voters

26TH 1971 18-19-20 year-olds