CHAPTER XI
SUFFRAGE
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, ratified on March 30, 1870, reads: "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." In the face of this unequivocal constitutional
provision, it would seem impossible to have a legal race
distinction in the matter of suffrage. It is plain that, if
a State or the United States makes a law that in any way
denies or abridges the right of a citizen to vote on account
of his race, such an enactment is in violation of the
Amendment. The only State or Federal statute or State
constitutional provision involving a race distinction that
would be valid under the Fifteenth Amendment would
be one that did not amount to a denial or abridgment
of the right to vote. For instance, a State might require
white and Negro electors to cast their ballots in different
boxes, or in different parts of the booth, or even in different
booths; or it might require them to register on
different days, or before different registrars. If the Negro
was given the same opportunity to register and vote as
the white man, the requirements of separate registering
and balloting would be race distinctions in the matter of
