African American History Brookline Edition Practice Test

Voting rights cannot be denied based on race, color, or past enslavement. This amendment, ratified in 1870 during Reconstruction, explicitly guarantees that men cannot be prevented from voting for these reasons, extending the franchise to Black men and aiming to protect their political participation after emancipation. It followed the 13th and 14th Amendments in shaping equal rights for newly freed people and set a constitutional standard against racial disenfranchisement. The other amendments address different issues: one established Prohibition on alcohol (later repealed), another created the federal income tax, and a different one secured women’s suffrage.