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Colored People Have The Right To Vote

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We have many rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, and so on. Although, one of the most important, includes the right to vote. After all, if we did not have a say in what is going on in our country, then what kind of country are we? Without the right to vote, we would not have the ability to choose what kind of country we live in. The right to vote is very important, as without it, one does not have a voice. Throughout history, people fought to have their voice counted and included. Under the old rule, voting was only inclusive to white males, aged 21 and older. According to the White House, over time, voting rights have been extended and now include citizens of all 50 states, with no discrimination against “race, …show more content…

This act banned discrimination against voting (Staff 2009). It bans the polling taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses (Staff 2009). In Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, the court rules that the poll tax violated the fourteenth amendment’s due process clause (Staff 2009). Today, African-Americans do their fair share of voting. In the 2012, presidential election, 60.8% of African-Americans came out to vote (Flippen). Today, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People works to preserve the rights of African-Americans and other minorities, by refreshing the Voting Rights Act, every time it is near its expiration (NAACP). Although African-American males gained the right to vote, women have been fighting for this right all along. The fight for women’s voting rights, began long before, in 1948 (CUNY). The women wrote the “Declaration of Sentiments” after the “Declaration of Independence” (CUNY). It included the statement, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” (CUNY). CUNY writes that the women wanted themselves to be included in the fifteenth amendment, along with African-Americans, but alas, their request was denied. It took a long time, but eventually, women got the right to vote in the nineteenth amendment in 1920

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