Fifteenth Amendment

-Proposed by Congress on February 26, 1869; Declared ratified on March 30, 1870

Section 1

[Negro Suffrage]

"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."

Section 2

[Power to Enforce This Article]

"The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

It really surprises me that this amendment and the 19th aren't in different places. With the way that blacks were discriminated against in the past, it seems that women would have been allowed to vote first. 

http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/voting-rights#fifteenth-amendment 

I really liked the way this site explained the fifteenth amendment. On first impression, I think that someone would think that different races were basically on even footing with the whites. But that was definitely not the case. Even though different races were given the right to vote, they were still being discriminated against and still, in essence, being prohibited from voting. 

An excerpt from the site:
"The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1870, just a few years after the end of the Civil War. This Amendment prohibits both federal and state governments from infringing on a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The Fifteenth Amendment is the third of three "Reconstruction Amendments" ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War. The other two are the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery, and the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons, "born or naturalized in the United States."
Prior to the Fifteenth Amendment, the states were empowered to set the qualifications for the right to vote. The Fifteenth Amendment essentially transferred this power to the federal government. Its ratification, however, had little effect for nearly a century. It had practically no effect in southern states, which devised numerous ways such as poll taxes and grandfather clauses to keep blacks from voting. Over time, federal laws and Supreme Court judicial opinions eventually struck down voting restrictions for blacks. Eventually, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 which established a commission to investigate voting discrimination. And in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed to increase black voter registration by empowering the Justice Department to closely monitor voting qualifications."

I really liked this video for further insight into this amendment because it shows how far our country has come since the amendment was put into effect. All the restrictions, such as poll taxes, that restricted different races from voting are officially gone. Furthermore, according to this video, in efforts to further expand different races' influence in politics, they are getting help in having their voices heard...even if its constitutional correctness is questionable.