Standard 10| Suffrage Amendments

Suffragist Susan B. ANTHONY:

When I was brought before your honor for trial, I hoped for a

broad and liberal interpretation of the Constitution and its recent amendments, that

should declare all United States citizens under its protecting [guidance] that should

declare equality of rights the national guarantee to all persons born or naturalized

in the United States. But failing to get this justice failing, even, to get a trial by

a jury not of my peers — I ask not leniency at your hands — but rather the full

[severity] of the law.

The basic problem identified in this speech by Susan B. Anthony was addressed in 1920 by a...

• Constitutional amendment granting suffrage to women

• presidential executive order allowing women to serve in the military

• supreme court decision granting women additional privacy rights

• law allowing women to petition the government

Which statement about the role of women in the United States is illustrated by these

two newspaper headlines?

Women suffrage leaders stage a protest (1848)

Nineteenth Amendment is ratified (1920)

• The role of women has remained unchanged since colonial times.

• The struggle for the vote by women has spanned many decades.

• The movement for granting women the vote has been a failure.

• Achieving the vote has never been important to American women.

The Twenty-fourth Amendment sought to correct a situation that was widespread in

the South primarily as a result of the

• decline of the Ku Klux Klan

• activities of the Freedman's Bureau

• use of a poll tax to block voting by African Americans

• passage of the Black Codes

Identify which group was extended voting rights by each amendment

• Women

• Twenty-sizth Amendment, 1971

• African American Men

• Fifteenth Amendment, 1870

• 18-year-olds

• Nineteenth Amendment, 1920

The ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment resulted in helping young people in

the United States. The Twenty-sixth Amendment is discussed.

In the late 1960s, the United States was involved in a long, costly war in Asia.

Young people held demonstrations to draw lawmakers ' attention to the hypocrisy of

drafting young men and women who lacked certain rights. In 1969, no fewer than

60 bills were introduced in Congress to change the situation, but none passed. The

following year, Congress passed a bill amending the Voting Rights Act. The act had

a provision that addressed a change in federal, state and local elections. President

Nixon signed the bill but felt the provision was unconstitutional. He believed that

such a change required a constitutional amendment.

Which issue is addressed by this passage?

• allowing young people to work at polling stations

• guaranteeing their ability to vote in school elections

• lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years

• dropping the draft age from 18 to 16 years

What is the underlying cause that led to the

ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment?

• unequal distribution of taxes on young people

• failure to provide voting rights to young African Americans

• events associated with the war in Vietnam

• denial of rights of a young person accused of a crime

Which constitutional amendment was adopted in response to the Vietnam War using the slogan "Old enough to fight, Old enough to vote!"

• limiting the number of years a President can serve

• adopting direct election of United States Senators

• introducing a graduated income tax

• lowering the voting age to 18 years of age

In which pair of items did the first event lead to the accompany-

ing amendment?

• African Americans were denied citizenship — Nineteenth Amendment

• young men could fight in a war but not vote — Twenty-fourth Amendment

• African Americans were enslaved — Fifteenth Amendment

• state residents could not vote to elect their U.S. Senators — Seventeenth Amend-

  ment

After the Civil War, the purpose of adding the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitu-

tion was to

• grant civil and political rights to women

• allow African Americans to become full citizens

• guarantee African Americans the right to vote

• extend voting rights to 18-year-olds

One way in which the Women's Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement

are similar is that both

• relied mostly on violence to draw attention to their goals

• opposed Supreme Court decisions expanding the rights of the accused

• refused to support church and religious leaders

• focused on securing the right to vote for disenfranchised groups