LibGuides: POLS 210G: American Constitutional Law: Amendments Related to Voting Rights

Constitutional Amendments Related to Voting Rights

When the U.S. Constitution was initially written in the late 18th century, people of color and women were excluded from voting. Since then, three amendments have been adopted that explicitly provide voting rights (also called suffrage) to the citizens who were originally left out.

15th Amendment (ratified 1870): The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
19th Amendment (ratified 1920): The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
26th Amendment (ratified 1971): The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen (18) years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Books About Voting Rights

Fighting Chance: The Struggle Over Woman Suffrage & Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America by Dudden, Faye.
Call Number: JK 1896 .D79 2011 (Bethlehem)
ISBN: 9780199772636
Publication Date: 2011
This book discusses the falling-out between women's and African American suffrage advocates during the Reconstruction era, examining the political culture in the United States during the 19th century, and describing how local Republicans sought to defeat both causes by setting the groups against each other.
Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement & American Democracy by Manza, Jeff.
Call Number: JK 1846 .M26 2006 (Bethlehem)
ISBN: 0195149327
Publication Date: 2006
About 5.4 million Americans -- one in 40 voting-age adults -- are denied the right to participate in elections because of a felony conviction. In several states, one in four black men cannot vote for this reason. How did the United States come to deny a voice to such a large percentage of its citizenry? What are the consequences of large-scale disenfranchisement, both for election outcomes and for public policy generally? This book exposes the centrality of racial factors in the origins of these laws, and their impact on politics today.
Opinions Throughout History: Voters' Rights by Issit, Micah.
Call Number: JK 1846 .I87 2019 (Online)
ISBN: 9781642650686
Publication Date: 2019
This book provides an in-depth exploration of not only the topic of voter suppression, but how public opinion influenced action on voters' rights, from the founding of the country (when most states limited the right to vote to property-owning males) to the establishment in 2017 of the Presidential Advisory Commission of Election Integrity, and beyond, to how voter suppression efforts affected the 2018 elections.
Suffrage Reconstructed: Gender, Race & Voting Rights in the Civil War Era by Free, Laura.
Call Number: JK 1896 .F74 2015 (Bethlehem & Monroe)
ISBN: 9780801450860
Publication Date: 2015
The 14th Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, identified all legitimate voters as "male." In so doing, it added gender-specific language to the U.S. Constitution for the first time. This is the first book to consider how and why the amendment's authors made this decision. Vividly detailing congressional floor bickering and activist campaigning, author Laura E. Free takes readers into the pre- and postwar fights over precisely who should have the right to vote. Free demonstrates that all men, black and white, were the ultimate victors of these fights, as gender became the single most important marker of voting rights during Reconstruction.
Youth & Political Participation by Utter, Glenn.
Call Number: HQ 799.9 .P6 U77 2011 (Bethlehem)
ISBN: 9781598846614
Publication Date: 2011
This book discusses factors that have influenced youth political participation in the past and those that play a role today, including the mass media, political parties, interest groups, and individual attitudes toward political engagement. The author also provides historical perspective by addressing the early years of the Republic, the protest politics of the 1960s, the campaign for the 18-year-old vote, and the results of the 26th Amendment granting that right.