The 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments were added in the 20th century to further increase voting rights of Americans.
- The 19th amendment, added in 1920, gives women the right to vote.
- The 24th amendment, added in 1964, prohibits the denial of voting rights for failure to pay a poll tax.
A poll tax is paying to vote. Some southern states would charge a fee for the right to vote. However, if your grandfather had been able to vote, then you were not required to pay the poll tax. Since African Americans were not able to vote until 1870, none of their grandfathers had been able to vote. And in the south, most African Americans were poor sharecroppers. So the poll tax was meant to exclude African Americans from being able to vote.
- The 26th amendment, added in 1971, changed the voting age to 18 in national elections. This amendment was added during the Vietnam War; young men were being drafted to fight in the army at age 18, but the voting age was set at 21. Many people protested, saying that if these young men were "old enough to fight" they should be "old enough to vote." The 26th amendment addressed this problem.
Now that you know a little bit about these 20th century amendments, let's take a look at them. Watch the following video. You'll see some famous people reading the 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments. Listen carefully to the words; see if you can understand what voting rights are being protected by each amendment.
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