Question

Which statement best explains the reason Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment? Option 1: To stop poll taxes from creating an economic barrier to voting in the South. Option 2: To guarantee the right to vote for women. Option 3: To guarantee equal protection under the law to freedmen. Option 4: To protect the ability of freedmen to participate in choosing a government through voting.

Answer 1

The Fifteenth Amendment aimed to protect the right to vote for African American men after the Civil War. It is a key part of the Reconstruction Era reforms and is best summarized as Option 4, which stresses the protection of voting rights for freedmen.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Fifteenth Amendment was part of the transformative changes during the Reconstruction Era that reshaped the United States following the Civil War. It aimed to protect the right to vote for all citizens, focusing particularly on African American men, who had been previously enslaved. Thus, to address the student's query, the statement that best explains why Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment is: Option 4 - To protect the ability of freedmen to participate in choosing a government through voting.

While the Fifteenth Amendment enshrined the rights of Black men to vote, it did not, at that time, extend this right to women (later addressed by the Nineteenth Amendment) nor did it immediately eliminate racial discrimination practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests. These mechanisms persisted in preventing many African Americans from practicing their newly gained right, with the poll tax not being outlawed until the Twenty Fourth Amendment was passed in 1964.