Which amendment prohibits denying the right to vote based on race or color?

• A. 15th Amendment
• B. 16th Amendment
• C. 19th Amendment
• D. 24th Amendment

Answer: (A)

Protecting the right to vote from being denied because of race is a shield against racial discrimination in voting. This is guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, which says 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. It was designed to secure Black men’s suffrage after the Civil War, though real-world barriers persisted for decades and required further civil rights laws to enforce.

The other amendments mentioned cover different issues—one establishes the federal income tax, another extends voting rights to women, and another bans poll taxes in federal elections—so they do not address denying the vote on the basis of race.