Which amendment prohibits denial of the right to vote based on race?

Which amendment prohibits denial of the right to vote based on race?

• A. 13th Amendment.
• B. 15th Amendment.
• C. 19th Amendment.
• D. 26th Amendment.

Answer: (B)

Voting rights cannot be denied because of race. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, states that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This was intended to protect newly freed Black men after the Civil War and ensure their participation in elections. While the amendment established the principle, many barriers persisted for decades, which helped lead to later protections like the Voting Rights Act of 1965. For context, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Nineteenth Amendment prohibits denying the vote based on sex, and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment sets the voting age at 18.