Which statement describes the Fifteenth Amendment's purpose?

Which statement describes the Fifteenth Amendment's purpose?

• A. It prohibits denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
• B. It prohibits poll taxes in federal elections.
• C. It guarantees equal protection under the law for all citizens.
• D. It grants citizenship to all people born in the United States.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is protecting the right to vote from racial discrimination. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, states that the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This was intended to ensure that newly freed Black men could participate in elections after the Civil War. It doesn’t cover poll taxes (that protection comes from the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and later enforcement cases), nor does it address equal protection in general (that’s the domain of the Fourteenth Amendment), nor birthright citizenship (that’s tied to the Fourteenth). So the description that aligns with the Fifteenth Amendment’s purpose is the one about prohibiting denying the right to vote based on race.