African-Americans right to vote was established in 1870 with the fifteenth amendment to the US

constitution, although this was a constitutional right only about 5% of african-americans voted
until 1965, the tactics used to keep african-americans from voting included literacy tests, poll
taxes, threats and violence. (Civil Rights, SF). At first, when the amendment was made African
Americans voted freely across the country during the period known as the Reconstruction, with
some black people even elected for office terms, but at the end of the Reconstruction the voting
segregation began in the former Confederate states with the withdrawal of US army occupation
and the return of the white supremacy, the first state to impose segregation measures into their
laws was Mississippi in 1890 with a poll tax and literacy tests. With the imposition of this laws
more than 60% of black citizens were excluded from their right to vote, this laws combined with
the return of white supremacist ideologies, which included violence and threats caused that only
3% of eligible African American citizens were registered to vote in 1940 (ACLU, SF). During and
after WWII, in the decades of the 1940s and 1950s African-American voting rights were still
stepped on by a combination of segregation laws and a horde of violence towards this minority, as
commented by WWII Veteran Medgar Evers All we wanted to be was ordinary citizens, we
fought during the war for America, Mississippi included. Now, after the Germans and Japanese
hadnt killed us, it looked as though the white Mississippians would.(CRF, SF). This segregation
condition lasted until 1964 when the poll taxes were abolished and in 1965 were the Voting Rights
Act was signed.

Library of congress. (2017). The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom. Loc.gov.
Retrieved May 3rd, 2017, from https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/segregation-era.html

Constitutional rights foundation. (2017). Race and Voting in the Segregated South. Crf-usa.org.
Retrieved May 3rd, 2017, from http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/race-and-voting-in-
the-segregated-south

American Civil Liberties Union. (2017). History of the Voting Rights Act. American Civil Liberties
Union. Retrieved May 3rd, 2017, from https://www.aclu.org/timelines/history-voting-rights-act

The leadership conference. (2017). Civil Rights 101. The Leadership Conference. Retrieved May
3rd, 2017, from http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/voting.html

They 13th Amendment; outlawed slavery, the 14th Amendment made African Americans citizens
of the United States of America with equality under the law and the 15th Amendment guaranteed
African Americans the right to vote. The US Constitution was supposed to protect the African
Americans but in 1896, with a rule by the US Supreme Court in the case Plessy vs. Ferguson. The
rule by the US Supreme Court made segregation legal by the principle of separate but equal.
And for the next 70 years, the Jim Craw laws dominated the way of life for the African American
society; creating segregation. Three of the most significant discriminations that the African
Americans lived were in public spaces, in the right to vote and in the education.
With the 13th to the 15th amendment to the United States constitution, African Americans were
granted the same rights as the white Americans by abolishing slavery, validating them as citizens
of the United States, which granted them equality under the law and the right to vote. With this
new constitutional rights African Americans were supposed to be protected and treated equally.
But in 1896, in the Plessy vs Fergusson case, a case were an African American refused to change
from his assigned seat to a color train wagon, at the end of the case the Supreme Court failed 7-1
in pro of making segregation constitutional, by the principle of separate but equal. After this
case and for the next 70 years the African American way of living was dictated by segregation laws,
also known as Jim Craw Laws, this laws were diverse and the discrimination they posed
comprehended aspects such as public spaces behaviors, education and the right to vote.