Question

What are points I can out in a five page paper about why black men should vote? Background on the 15th amendment?

Answer 1

(1) Because they can clearly manage their own affairs with self-discipline and honor, as demonstrated by their performance in the Union Army near the close of the Civil War. This was certainly a powerful argument from Grant's point of view.

(2) Because a republican form of government (guaranteed to each state by the Constitution) demands that ultimate power rests with the people, and therefore each man MUST have his representation in government. Arguably while black men were slaves, their interests were represented by their owners (at least that was the Southern argument), but once they were free, no one else could represent their interests. Ipso facto, they must represent their own, and that means they have to vote.

(3) Because free black men in the North could vote.

(4) From a crassly cynical point of view, because if they did NOT vote, then the effects of the Civil War could -- and very likely would -- readily be undone by the white voters of the South, once the rebellious states regained their sovereignty. If the state of military occupation were to be ended in short order, and the southern states allowed again to govern their own affairs, having blacks vote would be one good way of preventing any backsliding into antebellum habits.

(5) From an even more cynical point of view, because it would help preserve the strong majority the Republicans had enjoyed in Congress during the war, since the blacks would vote almost to a man for Republicans.

Answer 2

idk where you get 15 amendments from because back then james madison chose only 12 amendments and out of that 12 they only chosed 10 and those 10 amendments officially became the bill of rights. now about why black should vote started when martin luther king jr. was around. i think

Answer 3

April, there are 27 amendments to the US Constitution, since it has been amended many times after it was ratified. It was last amended in 1992, although that particular amendment is a weird one. But the 26th Amendment, ratified in 1972, extended the right to vote down to 18-year-olds.

The 15th Amendment, at issue here, was ratified in 1870, sixty years before MLK was born, and extended the right to vote to black men. (Black women were given the vote, along with all other women, by the 19th Amendment in 1920.)