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1789 - 1st Government meets under U.S. Constitution 

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1789 - 1st Government meets under U.S. Constitution 

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The Constitution was passed, and the first Congress met with the newly elected President, George Washington leading the country. The words in the Constitution did not define who a citizen was but instead said that any citizen of a state was deemed a citizen of the nation. At the time, most states only granted the right to vote to white, male property owners, and therefore, poor people, women, Native Americans, and African- Americans were restricted from voting.
Analysis: This event was significant because right when the United States gained its independence from Great Britain, the Founding Fathers decided to restrict the right to vote to a limited few: white, male property owners.  The fight to gain equal voting rights for all has been ongoing for 231 years due to this early decision.

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The war between the United States (the Union) and the Confederacy (southern states that had seceded or left the Union to form their own country) was about slavery and keeping the union together.  Nearly 180,000 Union soldiers were African American.

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This defines the U.S. citizen, and thus clarifies who may vote: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States wherein they reside." This is important to me because it gives us a clear understanding of who gets to vote.

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After the 15th amendment was put in place many states in the south still tried to find ways to limit African-Americans from voting. This is a contraction because people were trying to limit African-Americans voting rights. I chose this contraction because the 15th amendment was good, yet people still tried to get around it and be discriminatory.

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The Grandfather clause was enacted in many places. In states that your Father or Grandfather could vote before 1867, then you had the right to vote. I chose this one because it shows you how strict the voting rights were back then.

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By 1941 when the US entered the war, women and Native Americans had obtained the right to vote.  African Americans were still being excluded from the vote due to Jim Crow laws and other exclusionary laws that left them out of the voting process; however, they were still drafted into WWII, and ironically, they were asked to defend democracy oversees while they were denied the right to be active participants in it at home. Between 1941 & 1945, over 1 million African American men served in the US military. 6500 African American women served as Army and Navy nurses, but until 1945, the military restricted how many were allowed to enlist.

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The amendment finally granted The district Of Columbia Voters the ability to participate in presidential elections. This is important to me because it allowed more voters to be allowed in the election, which could determine a different outcome.

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This act was an expansion, because it banned 20 states from using literacy tests against people of color. Literacy tests, were rigged tests that people of color had to take in order for the to vote. I chose  this expansion because this ban made it much easier for people of color to vote, and the act was and still is very important for our country.

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The 26th amendment gives voting rights to 18 year olds in response to protests about men under 21 drafted for the Vietnam war but not able to. This amendment sets the voting age at 18 across the nation for all elections. I chose this act because this was a very important extension to younger voters.