ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Constitutional Amendments,

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alterations necessary to stay hip to the times.

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Hip hip hooray?

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What change to the Constitution was celebrated in the creation

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of the image? Right here.

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Celebration. Hmm.

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right. Well, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments,

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sometimes known as the Reconstruction Amendments,

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were added to the Constitution at the end of the Civil War.

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But this image? Well, it's asking about lucky number 15,

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so let's see what constituted that particular Amendment.

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Was the change to the Constitution celebrated in this image

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A - granting citizenship to all former slaves?

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Nope. That was the 14th Amendment. So it's not A.

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Was the 15th Amendment responsible for B -

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giving all women freedom to vote? Nuh-uh.

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That was the 19th Amendment, which wasn't ratified

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until 1920. So scratch B off the list.

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Is the celebration in the image for C -

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banning slavery and the slave trade?

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Wrong again. The 13th Amendment, not the 15th,

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was responsible for banning slavery.

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The 15th Amendment D -

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allowed citizens to vote regardless of race.

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The 15th Amendment granted all citizens - well, all male citizens -

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the right to vote. So D is the correct answer.

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Even with this Constitutional change,

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African Americans still faced a tough road to the ballot box,

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especially with the enactment of poll taxes

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and literacy tests. Unfortunately, the racist

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pen was still mightier than the Constitutional sword.

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[ buzzer ]

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