 The 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1870, a landmark of the Reconstruction era in which radical Republicans and their allies sought to ensure that America’s freedmen and their fellow blacks would be free and equal citizens. The amendment prohibits the denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race and authorizes Congress to enact “appropriate legislation” to implement the prohibition. But it would take a century after the amendment’s ratification before blacks across the South could register and vote free from widespread and overt discrimination and a well-grounded fear of economic coercion and retaliatory violence. Even during Reconstruction, when many blacks could vote under the protection of federal troops occupying the South at the time, there was routine discrimination and violence against blacks seeking to exercise their constitutional right. 