Enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups have been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.
Congress overrode Andrew Johnson's veto to pass the 1867 District of Columbia Suffrage Act (Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1867)
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government or any state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous cond
Voting rights in the United States
…to vote in the United States is governed by the United States Constitution and by federal and state laws. Several constitutional amendments (the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth specifically) require that voting rights of U.S. citizens cannot be abridged on account of race, color, previous condition…
The Fifteenth Amendment in the National Archives
"The First Vote" by Alfred R. Waud (Harper's Weekly, 1867) depicting African Americans casting ballots
An 1869 Thomas Nast cartoon supporting the Fifteenth Amendment. In the cartoon, Americans of different ancestries and ethnic backgrounds sit together at a dinner table with Columbia to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal as equal members of the American citizenry, while Uncle Sam carves a turkey.
1870 print celebrating the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in February 1870, and the post Civil War political empowerment of African Americans