Civics U: Citizenship - the Right to Vote

It may surprise some young folks to learn that in the early days of our country not everyone was a citizen, and not everyone had the right to own property, to go to school, or to vote.

In different contexts citizenship can refer either to the duties involved in being a good citizen such as contributing to one’s community and country; or it can refer to the legal rights that a person holds by virtue of being a citizen. One of the most important legal rights is the right to vote. This article will review the history of citizens’ right to vote.

Who is a Citizen

The U.S. Constitution does not define the term citizen or who is a citizen. In U.S. history not all residents were always “citizens”, and not all citizens had all “rights”. In 1790 Congress passed the first law about who should be granted U.S. citizenship. The Naturalization Act of 1790 allowed any free white person of “good character,” who had been living in the United States for two years or longer, to apply for citizenship. Without citizenship, nonwhite residents were denied basic constitutional protections, including the right to vote, own property, or testify in court.

www.history.com/topics/immigration/immigration-united-states-timeline

“Do you believe the Declaration of Independence … that men are created with equal rights…?” Harper’s Weekly editor George William Curtis posed this question in 1865. Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation two years earlier, and the United States was in the process of ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. The amendment ensured the freedom of enslaved African Americans, though they still lacked

many rights and protections.

One of those rights was the right to vote. African Americans had fought for the right to participate in the political process since before the Civil War. They argued that they deserved the same rights as white citizens. Over 200,000 Black men had fought in the Civil War, and they believed that they should be rewarded for their service with full citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, defined United States citizenship to include “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and it prohibited states from denying to any person “the equal protection of the laws.” African Americans were now citizens, but the definition did not grant voting rights to all people – to women, or black men or women.

In 1869, Republicans in Congress proposed another amendment to address suffrage. The The Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race and former slave status. President Ulysses S. Grant proclaimed the Fifteenth Amendment as “the greatest civil change [that] constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.”

Who can vote

Unfortunately, Grant’s hopes for a genuine bi-racial democracy were eventually overturned during the Jim Crow era when Southern states used voting restrictions such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses to keep black men from voting. Further, some folks used intimidation and outright violence, lynchings, and murders to keep black men from the polls. By the turn of the 20th century, the vast majority of the Southern Black population was effectively disenfranchised.

The Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment was to guarantee protection against racial discrimination in voting. However, many women’s rights activists objected to the proposed amendment because the protections would only apply to men. Still, enough states approved the Fifteenth Amendment that it was adopted in 1870.

Already in 1859 the English political and economic philosopher John Stuart Mill had argued in his work On Liberty (1859) that there should be no distinctions between men and women, and that both were capable of citizenship. History of citizenship - Wikipedia

But it was not until 1920 that the 19th Amendment was passed that states that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” In theory, this language guaranteed all women in the United States the right to vote. But in reality, the fact that the 15th Amendment banned voter discrimination based on race but not sex was used as a loophole to prevent black women and other women of color from voting on account of their race.

In some cases women had voting rights prior to the 19th Amendment. Wyoming had granted voting rights to women in 1869. In the early 20th century, additional states passed legislation allowing women to vote. Millions of white women already possessed voting rights, and millions more then gained that right in 1920. However, the spirit of Jim Crow legislation and a women’s rights movement that often discriminated against non-white women prevented all women from gaining voting rights under the 19th Amendment. Black women then gained their own right to vote through the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/did-women-earn-the-right-to-vote-on-august-18-1920.htm

Indian (Native American) Citizenship

While the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 bestowed citizenship on all persons born in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—the amendment had been interpreted as not applying to indigenous native people. Similarly, the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 granted all U.S. citizens the right to vote regardless of race, but Native Americans were not then citizens. Finally, in 1924, The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted US citizenship to the indigenous peoples of the United States.  It was enacted partially in recognition of the Native Americans who had served in World War I. Though the act granted Native Americans U.S. citizenship, it still did not ensure them the right to vote. The right to vote was determined by state law and several states prevented Native Americans from voting as late as the 1940’s. Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (thoughtco.com) https://library.tc.columbia.edu/blog/content/2022/june/24716---today-in-history-indian-citizenship-act.php

Today

Today persons of all racial, ethnic, and religious identities and backgrounds can be U.S. citizens. Even though prejudice and discrimination still occur, citizenship is secure and normally cannot be taken away.

Today all citizens* have the right to vote. The right to vote is not simply a civil right. It is an essential right. It is a necessary right if our democratic republic - our representative democracy - is to be a government by the people and for the people.

Lynn Huenemann

lhuenemann@q.com

*except for some incarcerated for a felony