This year's theme for Black History Month is "African Americans and the Vote," which honors the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 1920 that granted women's suffrage and the sesquicentennial anniversary of the 15th Amendment in 1870 that granted black men the right to vote.
The history of voting for African Americans has been fraught with obstacles such as Black Codes, vagrancy laws, peonage systems, racial segregation, de facto discrimination, disproportionate incarceration, and economic exploitation.
The right to vote has been an ongoing struggle for both black men and women. The abolitionist and women's suffrage movements carried the voices of African Americans forward through the 1960s to gain and keep the right to vote, participate in the political processes of our country, and serve as elected and appointed officials (ASALH, 2020)
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