4.2: Guaranteeing Other
Rights
Civil Rights
Voter Rights
Introduction
The right to vote is one of the greatest
privileges you have as a U.S. citizen
 1789- First presidential election



only white, male property-owning citizens could
vote
2011- Almost everyone 18 and older can vote
Amendments Extend Civil Rights

Civil Rights- rights guaranteed to all
citizens
Thirteenth Amendment

1863: Lincoln issued
the Emancipation
Proclamation


banned slavery in
Confederate states
1865: Outlawed
slavery in all states
and lands governed by
the United States
Fourteenth Amendment
1868: granted full citizenship to AfricanAmericans
 States could not take away a citizen’s life,
liberty, or property without due process
 Guarantees every citizen within a state
equal protection under the laws

Amendments Extend Voting Rights

The Constitution did not mention voting rights


women, African-Americans, poor people, and
others could not vote
1870-1971: six constitutional amendments
extended suffrage, the right to vote, to all
U.S. citizens
Fifteenth Amendment

1870: No one could be denied suffrage
because of race or color

Former Confederate states passed laws to keep
African-Americans from voting
Seventeenth Amendment
The state’s legislature elected that state’s
senators
 1913: 17th amendment called for the
direct election of senators


Senators were now accountable to the citizens
and not politicians
Nineteenth Amendment
Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the women’s
suffrage movement in the mid-1800’s
 1920- a national suffrage law giving all
women the right to vote

Twenty-third Amendment

1961: Gave citizens living in the District of
Colombia the right to vote for president
Twenty-fourth Amendment

1964: banned poll taxes as requirements
for voting in national elections


poll tax- a tax a person has to pay to register
to vote
1966: outlawed poll taxes in state elections
Twenty-sixth Amendment

1971: lowered the voting age in all
elections to 18

Young men were old enough at 18 to fight in a
war then they should be able to vote as well
Voting Rights Today
No one can be denied the right to vote
because of their gender, color of their
skin, or their religion. They do not need to
own land or pay money to vote
 Every citizen should exercise their right to
vote when he or she has the chance
