Read the following text from Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1868:
"But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
Which of the following best describes a major political consequence of the gender-specific language and structural design of this section?
- It fractured the alliance between Black civil rights activists and women's suffrage advocates, as the explicit constitutional protection of voting rights was limited to "male" citizens.Cevap
- BIt led to the immediate passage of federal laws that stripped Southern states of all congressional representation if they refused to register Black voters.
- CIt established a constitutional precedent that allowed Southern states to completely exclude Black men from the population counts used to determine federal taxation.
- DIt successfully compelled Southern states to adopt universal manhood suffrage during Reconstruction to avoid reductions in their congressional seats.