Preamble
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.
This is another cache in a patriotic series that began before the November 3, 2020 election. It is a series about love of country, our flag and our Constitution. From at least one stage of the cache you will be able to spot an American flag. May she forever wave!
Many thanks to Sally Sedona for agreeing to help with cache maintenance.
Amendment 15
Right to Vote for African Americans
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The 15th Amendment, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution in 1870. The Amendment sought to protect the voting rights of African American men in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even after its ratification, discriminatory practices continued to be used to prevent black citizens from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that legal barriers were outlawed at the state and local levels if they denied African Americans their right to vote.
In the Reconstruction period 1867, following the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The South was divided into five military districts based on the act, which also outlined how to establish new governments based on universal manhood suffrage.
After the adoption of the 15th Amendment in 1870, a politically mobilized African American community joined with white allies in the Southern states to elect the Republican Party to power, which brought about radical changes across the South. Towards the end of 1870 all the former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union. Because of the support of black voters most of the Confederate states were controlled by the Republican Party.
In the same year, a Republican from Mississippi, Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected to the Senate and became the first African American to sit in the U.S Congress. Although African American Republicans never obtained political office in proportion to their overwhelming electoral majority, Revels and twelve other black men served in Congress during the Reconstruction period, more than 600 served in state legislatures and many more held local offices.
How well do you know your Bill of Rights? Fill in the answers to the puzzle below to get the final coordinates.
N 35° AA.5B2'
W 111° 37.CDE'
AA = State sovereign immunity. States are protected from law suits by citizens living in another state or foreigners that do not reside within the state borders.
B = Guarantees the right to a jury in federal civil trials.
C = Protects citizens from being forced to quarter soldiers in their home.
D = Protects citizens from self-incrimination and double jeopardy.
E = Listing specific rights in the Constitution does not mean that people do not have other rights that have not been spelled out.
Checker: Add up the numbers for the answers (A+A+B+C+D+E) and the total should be 26.
FTF: carefreelady and Sally Sedona!
Source: 15th Amendment - Definition, Date & Summary - HISTORY