Voting Rights Timeline

Voting Rights Timeline

1776: United States declares independence

1787–1788: Ratification of the U.S. Constitution

Adoption of the Constitution: Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution in 1787. New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the Constitution in 1788, making its adoption official. Rhode Island was the last state to ratify it in 1790. The adoption of the Constitution radically altered elections and voting in the United States by creating new political offices and establishing new electoral processes. The Constitution delegated most responsibilities involving elections and voting to the states but gave Congress the right to override state election and voting laws as needed.

1789–1797: George Washington’s Presidency

The Early Republic: Under the Constitution, state governments had the authority to establish who could and could not vote in elections. The suffrage laws adopted were revolutionary for the time, when monarchy and aristocracy were the norm. To have a system in which a large portion of the population could vote and exercise self-governance was exceptional. While suffrage during the early republic was generally restricted to white male property owners, a majority of white males met the property qualifications in most areas. Moreover, multiple states adhered more closely to the principle of equality that sat at the heart of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. For example, New Jersey granted property-owning women and free Blacks the right to vote, and Vermont did not have a property requirement.

1939–1945

World War II Postwar Voting Rights: While the Reconstruction amendments were initially successful in protecting the rights of Black Americans, by the 1870s, these rights were stripped away in the Jim Crow South. Whites there used violence and intimidation to prevent Blacks from voting and passed laws to keep them second-class citizens. Literacy tests and poll taxes were two of the most common tactics that Southern states used to keep Blacks from voting throughout the first half of the twentieth century. After World War II, the Civil Rights Movement worked to remove legal restrictions on Black suffrage. In 1964, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment outlawed poll taxes, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests. The most recent major expansion of suffrage occurred in 1971, with the passage of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. Young American males under the age of 21 were frustrated that they were being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War but could not vote to have a say in whether the country should be involved in the conflict. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment expanded suffrage to all Americans over the age of 18. Today, the vast majority of Americans over 18 can vote. However, some restrictions on suffrage exist. Non-citizens cannot vote in federal and state elections. States generally bar felons in prison from voting, and some states strip suffrage for life after prison. In the American system of federalism, each state will continue to make decisions on whether restrictions should exist or not.

Analysis Prompts

• Name and summarize in your own words each constitutional amendment from the timeline that has directly affected voting rights.
• Describe how voting rights have expanded and constricted over time.
• Choose a virtue: responsibility, prudence, or justice. Explain how that virtue is tied to the fight for suffrage.
• Use the dates on the timeline to support or refute the statement: Voting rights are a key aspect of citizenship.