The Fifteenth Amendment
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
NPG.2023.7
Tags
MerchantBoat builderLawyerAbraham Lincoln: MaleSoldierPostmasterPresident of USIllinoisSurveyorIllinois
About this artwork
This print features a festive parade held in Baltimore in May 1870 to celebrate the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1870). It granted male citizens the right to vote, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Following the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery (1865), and the Fourteenth to guarantee citizenship to all persons born in the United States (1868), the Fifteenth removed obstacles, such as poll taxes and literacy...