Amendment 15
AFRICAN AMERICAN SUFFRAGE
This amendment was proposed on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870.
SECTION 1
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.
COMMENTARY:
African Americans who had been slaves became citizens under the terms of the 14th
Amendment. The 15th Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote
because of race. Some southern states were able to deny African Americans the right to
vote despite this Amendment until the 1960s, when Congress passed laws to enforce the
Amendment and the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional practices and legal procedures
whose effect had been to circumvent it.
SECTION 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment 16
INCOME TAXES
This amendment was proposed on July 12,1909, and ratified on February 3, 1913.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect
taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several
States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
COMMENTARY:
In 1894, Congress passed an income tax law, but the Supreme Court declared it to be a
direct tax that had to be apportioned among the states and thus made it impossible to levy.
This amendment authorized Congress to levy such a tax without apportionment.