The Right to Vote Didn't Come Easy

“My grandmother and my uncle experienced circumstances that would break your heart. When they went to vote, they were asked impossible questions like, ‘How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?’ When they couldn't answer, they couldn't vote,” said Dr. Maya Angelou.

She was referring to the “Black Codes” that were passed the same year that all men over the age of 21 were given the right to vote by the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment (1870). The “Black Codes” restricted the freedoms of African Americans. Among the freedoms restricted was the freedom to exercise the right to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, hiding the locations of the polls, economic pressures, threats of physical violence, and other strategies to suppress the African American vote were either found in the Black Codes or flowed from them[1].”

When America was founded in 1776, only white men over the age of 21 who owned property had the right to vote, except for Catholics, Jews, and Quakers[2]. But through centuries of suffrage movements, marches, etc. other groups gained the right to vote.

Take a look at the voting timeline to see when different groups got the right to vote.

Voting Timeline

1920 (19th Amendment)	Women – The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) prohibits the United States or the states from denying or abridging the privilege of voting "on account of sex"[3].
1924	Native Americans – Native Americans can vote in 1924 when Congress grants full U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans via the Indian Citizenship Act. This Act declares all Indians who have not yet been granted citizenship through marriage, military service, treaties, or other specialized laws and who were also born within the U.S. to be citizens, giving them the right to vote. However, many Native Americans continue to be denied the right to vote by states until 19482.
1961 (23rd Amendment)	Residents who live in the District of Columbia are granted the right to vote3.
1964 (24th Amendment)	Made it illegal for states to charge poll tax to voters[4].
Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965	It banned literacy tests and provided federal enforcement of voting registration and other rights in several Southern states and Alaska1.
After 1965	Asian Pacific Americans2
1971 (26th Amendment)	Lowered the voting age across the nation to 184.
1975	Latinos2
Voting Rights Act of 1970	A federal law that seeks to prevent voting discrimination based on race, color, or membership in a language minority group3.
Disabilities Act of 1990	It provided for ballot and poll access for those with disabilities1.

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[1] History of Voting Rights in America. (2004). Cobb-LaMarche '04. Retrieved from www.iwantmyvote.com/recount/history.

[2] Eddins Zabela Geri. (2012). Who Gets To Vote? Retrieved from www.ourwhitehouse.org/whogetsvote.html.

[3] Voting Rights. (2003). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Voting_rights.aspx.

[4] Historical Facts. Retrieved from www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/hancock/pol204/history.htm.