"The Fifteenth Amendment does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one. It prevents the States, or the United States, however, from giving preference, in this particular, to one citizen of the United States over another on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude... The power of Congress to legislate at all upon the subject of voting at state elections is limited to the single case of preventing discrimination on these accounts."
— Supreme Court of the United States, United States v. Reese, 1876
Which of the following was a direct historical consequence of the judicial interpretation expressed in the excerpt?
- AThe immediate deployment of federal troops to Southern states to enforce universal male suffrage
- BThe ratification of a new constitutional amendment that established universal female suffrage
- CThe application of popular sovereignty to let individual Western territories decide voting qualifications
- The adoption of voting restrictions by Southern states, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, that did not explicitly name raceAnswer
Answer
The adoption of voting restrictions by Southern states, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, that did not explicitly name race
The Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Reese established that the Fifteenth Amendment did not grant a positive right to vote, but only prohibited discrimination based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This narrow interpretation allowed Southern Democrats to craft state-level voting restrictions—such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses—that effectively disenfranchised African American voters without explicitly mentioning race, thereby avoiding direct violation of the amendment.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Judicial rollback of Reconstruction civil rights protections and the rise of Southern disenfranchisement strategies.