According to the Fifteenth Amendment citizens were not supposed to be restricted from voting based on their race or previous status as slaves. In spite of this federal law southern states passed their?

own discriminatory laws, such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and understanding clauses, to circumvent the protections of the Fifteenth Amendment. These laws effectively disenfranchised many African American voters and maintained white supremacy in the electoral process. Additionally, intimidation and violence were often used to suppress Black voter turnout. As a result, the promise of the Fifteenth Amendment was largely unfulfilled in the South for decades.