"All Men are Created Equal" Didn't Necessarily Mean They Had the Right to Vote
Imagine a laborer in 1789, standing in a field, wiping sweat from his brow despite the late fall chill. He is clearing trees from a parcel of land he does not own, which he will, come spring, plow and plant with corn. He is a sturdy 40-year-old, but already a bit stooped from years of heavy work, and his shoulder aches on cold, damp mornings like this one from a musketball still lodged there.
He watches the owner of the land roll by in a fine carriage pulled by two sprightly pacers on the way to vote in the country's first presidential election. A few years earlier, the laborer had fought--and seen many men like himself die--in the war that would birth what became the United States. As he stood there, he, no doubt, had more liberty and opportunity for self-advancement than he did under colonial rule, but as far as having a direct voice in who would lead this new nation he had fought to create and what its government would look like, he had no more say than he did under Britain's King George III.
That, in a nutshell, is the paradox of American democracy. Despite the language about equality in the country's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they guaranteed very little in the way of democracy for the great majority of Americans. In real terms, only about 6% of the total population had the right to vote in the years after the Constitution's ratification. By contrast, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 236 million U.S. citizens were eligible to vote in the 2024 presidential election. That is 69% of the total population of 340 million. It is hard to argue that, for a country that sees itself as the world's leading democracy, the expansion of voting rights is a bad thing.
The extension of voting rights and thus full participation in the democratic process has been a long time coming and has met strong resistance and reversals every step of the way. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, with midterm elections coming in November and recent Supreme Court rulings affecting voting, we thought it would be worthwhile to look at the constitutional amendments and laws that have sought to make the democratic process more... well... democratic.
Giving and Taking Away
The restriction of voting rights to landowners was slowly, state by state, eliminated over about 40 years, until, by the election of 1828, non-property-owning white men could vote in almost all states. Unfortunately, during the same period and the years following, many of the states in which free black men could vote rescinded the right.
The 13th Amendment (1865)
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. More than four million enslaved people were legally freed, but the amendment marked the beginning of a long struggle rather than its conclusion. Freedom on paper did not guarantee equal rights or equal opportunity. Even so, the 13th Amendment fundamentally changed who could claim the promise of liberty and forced the country to confront the gap between its ideals and its reality.
The 14th Amendment: Defining Citizenship
Three years later, the 14th Amendment transformed the meaning of citizenship itself. Ratified in 1868, it established that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen and guaranteed equal protection under the law. Those words have shaped generations of court decisions and civil rights movements. From school desegregation to marriage equality, many of the rights Americans take for granted today rest on the foundation laid by the 14th Amendment.
The 15th Amendment: Expanding the Vote
Democracy depends on who gets to participate. Ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment prohibited denying the right to vote on the basis of race. Unfortunately, discriminatory laws and practices--the so-called Jim Crow Laws--would largely keep many Black Americans from the ballot box for nearly another century, the amendment established an important principle: voting rights should not depend on race. The struggle to make that promise a reality would continue through the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, reminding us that expanding rights often requires generations of persistence.
SIDEBAR: What are Jim Crow Laws?
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the South, including Texas, from the late 1800s to the 1950s and '60s that enforced racial segregation. They essentially eliminated African Americans' right to vote and any political and economic gains they had made during Reconstruction.
The 19th Amendment: A Victory Decades in the Making
When the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, it prohibited states from denying the vote based on sex. The achievement was the result of decades of organizing and advocacy by women who argued that democracy should include their voices as well. The amendment expanded political participation to millions of Americans, though many women of color still faced barriers to voting for years afterward. Its passage serves as a reminder that change often comes slowly—and that determined citizens can reshape the nation.
Not an Amendment, but a Landmark Bill: The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Although it isn't a constitutional amendment, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 deserves a place in this story because it helped turn the promise of the 15th Amendment into reality. Passed nearly 95 years after the amendment was ratified, the law prohibited many of the discriminatory practices that had long prevented Black Americans from exercising their right to vote, including literacy tests and other barriers designed to suppress participation. The Voting Rights Act dramatically expanded access to the ballot box and became one of the most significant civil rights laws in American history.
SIDEBAR: What is Gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency.
Think of a state with 100 voters split evenly between two parties. If like-minded voters tend to live in clumps, voting districts can be drawn so that one party always has more voters in all or most of the voting districts.
Historically, gerrymandering has been used by parties in power to help them hold onto power
The 26th Amendment: Lowering the Voting Age
The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. During the Vietnam War, many Americans questioned why young people could be drafted to fight and die for their country but could not vote. "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote" became a rallying cry, and the amendment was adopted with remarkable speed.
Giving and Taking Away, Part 2
In recent years, new voting requirements have been implemented. It is argued that the requirements are necessary to make sure that elections are secure and free from voter fraud. While no one has presented any solid evidence of widespread voter fraud in any recent election, a fair and trustworthy electoral process is something the vast majority of Americans would agree is a good thing. Yet, many argue that the new requirements disproportionately affect younger voters, low-income people, people of color, and the unhoused.
Additionally, recent Supreme Court decisions have significantly reduced protections for minority voters under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The gist of the Court's majority ruling is that race-based protections are no longer necessary. The decision has prompted several states to redraw voting district lines ahead of the November midterm elections.
While none of these developments directly challenge the Constitutional Amendments discussed here, it is hard not to see them as efforts to skirt their spirit, if not their intent.
SIDEBAR: Why is Voter Turnout So Low?
In 2024, Donald Trump won the popular vote by 2,284,967 votes. That looks like a lot, but when you consider that over 35 times that number of people (86,800,989, to be exact) were eligible to vote but didn't, you begin to understand a key issue with our elections.
There is no one factor that explains the relatively low turnout in U.S. elections. Some of the most often cited explanations include:
-
-
-
- non-competitive races because of gerrymandering ("Why should I vote if my candidate has no chance of winning?")
- the difficulty in registering or voting ("the lines are so long!")
- Distaste for the political process in general and the modern political campaign in particular: ("The ads are so negative, and I don't trust that either candidate is going to keep their promises, anyway.")
- The undue influence of big money interests and campaign contributions on politicians ("The system is rigged against people like me. My voice doesn't matter.")
-
-
An idea that doesn't get mentioned in most discussions of voter turnout is that the choice not to vote (if it is made willingly) is, in fact, a vote, and its message is entirely clear to those who hold political power. It says keep on doing what you're doing. Everything is fine.
More than Words on a Page
What you don't see in the ratified amendments listed here are the thousands of women and men who asked that the country try harder to live up to the ideas and ideals set forth in the Constitution. They organized and marched and argued and did all the other small and large things needed to make real, substantive change. The story of the United States isn't just the story of laws being written—it's the story of ordinary people working, generation after generation, to make the promise of "We the People" mean what it says..
Add a comment to: Voting Rights and the Amendments that Changed America