History of the U.S. Vote
When the Constitution was ratified on September 17th, 1787, only white male adult property-owners had the right to vote.
African Americans
- The 14th Amendment of 1868 granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States."
- African American men didn't gain the right to vote until the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870.
- It took the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to move beyond the discrimination of Jim Crow Laws and Plessy vs. Fergusson's "Separate but equal".
Source: Library of Congress America's Story from America's Library - Reconstruction. Retrieved on August 19th, 2008 from: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/recon/revised_1
Women
- Suffragists argued for women's right to vote through the 15th Amendment. (source)
- This amendment makes no mention of gender. The U.S. Courts rejected the idea in Minor vs. Happersett (1875) (source)
- Women did not receive the right to vote until August 26, 1920, when the 19th Amendment was ratified. (source)
Native Americans
- On June 2, 1924 the Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. including the right to vote. (source)
- States control the right to vote. And Up until 1956, some states still barred Native Americans from voting. (source)
- In 1956, Utah was the last state to give Native Americans the right to vote. (source)
Asian Pacific Americans
- Asian Pacific American immigrants were considered, "aliens ineligible for citizenship," from 1790 onward. (source)
- During Internment, civil rights, including the right to vote, were denied to Japanese Americans based solely upon ethnicity. (source)
- Asian Pacific Americans did not vote in large numbers until the 1965 National Immigration Act changed naturalization and allowed many groups to become citizens. (source)
Hispanic Americans
- The Spanish American War ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, giving the U.S. an enormous portion of land. (source)
- Overnight thousands of Mexicans became U.S. Citizens and were subject to the fierce discrimination faced by other ethnic groups when it came to the right to vote. (source)
- All Mexican Americans did not secure the right to vote until the 1975 Voting Rights Act prevented language discrimination by providing native-language voting materials. (source)
Young Voters
47% of 18 to 24 year-olds voted in the 2004 election. (source)
That's pretty good.
But how about we try for 100%?