EMANICIPATION: The Promise We Seek, Part 3

#VRABlackHistory #WeWillToo

How Our Ancestors Fought Back and #WeWillToo

January 7th article, Part 1: The First Celebrations of Juneteenth and How It Has Been Used to Organize for Voting Rights

Yesterday's article, Part 2: Why Birthright Citizenship, now under attack by President Trump, Was Enshrined in the 14th Amendment (1868)

Today's Article, February 9th, Part 3: The 15th Amendment (1869)

"The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed.

You can lose it."

- Rep. John Lewis, 2020

e·man·ci·pa·tion

[əˌmansəˈpāSHən]

noun

the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation:
"the emancipation of feminist ideas"

the freeing of someone from slavery:
"the early struggle for emancipation from slavery""

(Source: Oxford Languages)

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Reporting by: Caitlyn Arnwine (formerly Caitlyn Cobb). This article on the 15th Amendment was originally written in 2017, and updated in 2018, and reformatted and updated in 2025. The summary written by Barbara Arnwine. Sources are cited throughout the article. For more information on this series, see below the source list.

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Today, February 9th, 2025, we honor the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlaws discrimination in voting rights on the basis of race, color, and previous condition of servitude; thereby advancing suffrage for African Americans (although only men could vote at that time). This was the last and most hard fought for of all the Reconstruction Congress' Constitutional Amendments to confer full citizenship upon the formerly enslaved. The intention of this amendment was to codify, permanently, the right to vote for all freed men. Immediately, the impact of this amendment proved transformative as freed men exercised the right to vote, and in coalition, elected several hundred African-Americans to office throughout the nation.

Click here to view a large image of the 15th Amendment

African-American men seeking to vote were often met with obstacles, brutal opposition, and skepticism; yet, still they participated in the franchise in record numbers.

Due to the infamous 1877 Hayes-Tilden Compromise, which- among other things- removed the federal troops from the South, this period of African-American voting power lasted only from 1870-1901. Although brief, this era of voting would be instrumental in inspiring the continued fight for Black suffrage for decades to come.

The legal power of the Fifteenth Amendment would be largely dormant for many years until its rejuvenation in the modern Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th Century.

Our ancestors fought for our right to vote, from the ending of the Fugitive Slave Acts, for birthright citizenship, to the passage of the 15th Amendment. Our right to vote has been called sacred and precious. Our right to vote is vital, or else they wouldn't have tried so hard throughout history to keep it from us.

Click the video below to watch as historian Yohuru Williams give a brief rundown of the history of the 15th Amendment:

"All men free and equal." The XVth amendment proclaimed. Message to Congress. - Proclamation of the President ... New Haven, Conn. J. H. Benham & son, printers [1870].

This is a link to a newspaper published in New Haven, Connecticut in 1870 that talks quotes President Ulysses S. Grant and talks about the meaning of the 15th Amendment. At the end of the page, on the right hand side, there is also a comparison of the number of voters added to several states versus the Black population of that state.

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory and to use this series for school projects. You can also tweet us @TJC_DC to share your own facts or connections to this history.

Fifteenth Amendment Fun Facts:

“One day after it was ratified, Thomas Mundy Peterson (1824-1904) of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first black person to vote under the authority of the 15th Amendment.”

In 1997, Tennessee was the last state to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment.

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Sources

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=44#

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.37947/

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html#bibliography

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86053572/1870-03-31/ed-1/seq-1/

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026994/1870-04-02/ed-1/seq-1/

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1870-04-02/ed-1/seq-4/

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr22a.html#obj11

http://15thamendment.harpweek.com/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.00902000/?st=text

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025925/1870-03-31/ed-1/seq-1/

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fifteenth-amendment

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc_large_image.php?doc=44;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PWgcHkHFeM

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fifteenth-amendment/videos/sound-smart-the-15th-amendment

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!

We hope you enjoy our #VRABlackHistory Series 2025 with the theme

"Facing Extremism: How Our Ancestors Successfully Fought For Our Rights and #WeWillToo"

From the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance

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Please note, if you'd like to opt out from only the upcoming daily Black History Month Voting Rights Alliance #VRABlackHistory series, please email carnwine@tjcoalition.org. Unsubscribing at the bottom of this email unsubscribes you to all Transformers, not just from this special February Series.

The Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are continuing the annual tradition of our daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series was created in 2017 and will introduce many new articles this year. In addition to these daily newsletters all February long, this series also incorporates daily social media posts; an interactive calendar; and, website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

This year, the Voting Rights Alliance’s #VRABlackHistory Series will take readers through the most difficult fights for our African-American voting rights- and how we won.

The 2025 #VRABlackHistory Series #WeWillToo Edition will connect our history to modern times to show just how our ancestors beat the odds. Every day, this series will detail in chronological order the fights for Black suffrage, and will feature articles on the Fugitive Slave Laws and the parallels to the present day mass deportation raids conducted by ICE; the fight for same day voter registration; how our ancestors worked with hostile presidencies and courts to achieve rights; how Juneteenth has been used to mobilize voters; the amazing achievements of the Reconstruction Era; why birthright citizenship began and how the 14th Amendment has been interpreted throughout history; how DEI initiatives started in the 1860's; the 15th Amendment; how we achieved the first anti-lynching laws in Georgia and how lynching was used to suppress the vote; how we moved past the Jim Crow Era; how Black youth mobilized to lower the voting age to 18; how the Tuskegee Airmen went on to fight for voting rights after their service; how boycotts were used to fight for voting rights; the "Souls To The Polls" voting initiatives of the Black churches in the 1950's- 1990's; how Black people fought for voting rights for disabled people; how Black people fought for equal access to the ballot for the LGBTQIA community; how the Brunswick, Georgia community banded together after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 to vote out their District Attorney; the history of voting rights for Black women and how Black women continue to vote and lead voter efforts at amazing rates; how we have historically used the Black press to fight for our right to vote; and, more.

Our ancestors faced much greater opposition than we do today, even as we face a new hostile federal Administration- and they persevered. The sentiment felt by some African-Americans post-election is to sit back, sit out, and a general feeling of frustration and hopelessness. This Series targets those feelings: we can win! This Edition of the Series is also a tribute to all of those fighting back, especially against efforts to ban DEI and our history. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – so let us learn from our history, our beautiful, strong, resilient, Black History.