A Level History - America - Practice Exam

Which legislation aimed to prevent racial voting discrimination primarily through loopholes?

1. 13th Amendment

2. 15th Amendment

3. Civil Rights Act

4. Voting Rights Act

The correct answer is: 15th Amendment

The legislation that aimed to prevent racial voting discrimination primarily through loopholes is the 15th Amendment. Ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." However, despite its intended purpose of ensuring voting rights for African American men, the amendment allowed for numerous loopholes that states exploited to disenfranchise Black voters. States implemented practices such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and understanding clauses, which were seemingly race-neutral but effectively targeted Black voters to suppress their participation in elections. In contrast, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, and the Civil Rights Act primarily dealt with public accommodations and discrimination in various areas of life, while the Voting Rights Act of 1965 specifically aimed to eliminate voting discrimination through more rigorous enforcement of voting rights and banning the discriminatory practices that had developed since the 15th Amendment. Thus, while the Voting Rights Act is critically important in the history of voting rights, the 15th Amendment was the legislation that originally allowed for the kind of loopholes used to bypass racial voting protections.