The Right To Vote

The Fifteenth Amendment, prohibiting any government in the United State from denying a citizen the right to vote was ratified February 3rd 1870.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the constitution was the third of the Reconstruction Amendments. It prohibited governments in the United States from using race, or prior position of slavery in regards to voting qualification. The original draft of the amendment guaranteed a right vote and hold office to all male citizens of the United States, but a House and Senate conference committee removed the office holding guarantee. It also left the right for States to impose literacy tests and poll taxes. The Amendment passed the Senate with 39 for, 13 against and 14 absent, the House vote was 144 for, 44 against and 35 absent. The Amendment was ratified on February 3rd 1870. After the amendment was adopted, the first African American to vote was Thomas Mundy Peterson on March 31st 1870 in Perth Amboy New Jersey.

Christmas Eve and the Klan

Right after the Civil War ended on December 24th 1865 in Pulaski,TN six Confederate veterans created the original Ku Klux Klan. The name made up from the Greek word kyklos meaning circle, and was just one of many secret societies of the time. Since most of the Klan’s members were veterans of the late war, they used military structure within the organization. The main purpose of this early Klan was to resist Reconstruction. It was put out of being in the 1870’s when President Ulysses S Grant saw passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1871; aka the Ku Klux Klan Act.

For more information


http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_kkk.html

http://www.kkklan.com/briefhist.htm

Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s