February 1870

The 15th Amendment, ratified February 3, 1870, prohibited denying the right to vote 'on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.' Black men across the South immediately exercised voting rights in large numbers, electing Black and Republican candidates to local, state, and federal offices. However, the Amendment did not prohibit poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, or other facially race-neutral disenfranchisement mechanisms — loopholes that Southern states would systematically exploit from the 1870s through the 1960s to eliminate Black political participation.

Hiram Revels of Mississippi was seated in the U.S. Senate on February 25, 1870, becoming the first African American senator, filling the seat once held by Jefferson Davis. Born free in North Carolina, Revels was a Methodist minister and Union Army recruiter. His seating was contested by Democrats who questioned his citizenship. His election, by the Mississippi state legislature, represented the apex of Black political participation in the state.

The vote is guaranteed regardless of race; Black men begin electing Black officials across the South.

Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African American in the US Senate during Reconstruction.