The Fifteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allowed blacks to vote. But more importantly it meant blacks were people and were to be counted as citizens. There were some problems with the Fifteenth Amendment. It had left out some specifics dealing with the issue. Henry Adams said, "It is more remarkable for what it does not than for what it does contain." What he was speaking of was what some states noticed about the less than strongly worded Fifteenth Amendment. Many states, both Northern and Southern, made it tough for blacks to vote. They imposed poll taxes that left many blacks, as well as some whites hard pressed to pay this tax. Some states said you had to own property, which at this point very few blacks did. Many states would have literacy tests, which there were many people left in the dark for this, as they didn't have any previous education. But to get by the literacy test for some whites they imposed the Grandfather Clause, which said that if your father or grandfather voted before the Fifteenth Amendment, then you were able to vote. The wording to the amendment did not say blacks could be allowed to hold office, which many Congressmen were for. These problems existed for almost a century, as this amendment really had little impact at all. During World War II only 5 percent of Southern blacks were registered to vote. The problems were taken care, finally, with the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
             Everything was not gloomy for this Amendment though. It was one of the final major steps for Americans towards Democratic expansion during the reconstruction time period. It did take out loopholes that existed in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. This passing of the Fifteenth Amendment did show that the government was becoming closer to being a government by all the people, not just whites. Once the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, the shape of voting finally starte...