The 15th Amendment guaranteed what to be protected?

• A. Race
• B. Sex
• C. Age
• D. Income

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the 15th Amendment protects the right to vote regardless of race. It prohibits denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This was added after the Civil War to ensure Black men could participate in elections, making voting rights secure across racial lines.

It does not address sex, age, or income. Those issues were addressed later by the 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage) and the 26th Amendment (lowering the voting age to 18), and income has never been a constitutional basis for denying the vote. In practice, the amendment faced enforcement challenges for many years, as various barriers were used to limit Black voting, until later civil rights laws aimed to enforce it more fully.