#fifteenthamendment

Thomas Peterson-Mundy became the first African American to cast a ballot in the United States, one day after the ratification of the 15th Amendment, in Perth Amboy, N.J. 

On May 30, 1884, he received a medal in commemoration of his courage to exercise his right of suffrage. The two-sided medal had an image of Abraham Lincoln and an inscription that read: 

“Presented by citizens of Perth Amboy, N. J., to Thomas Peterson, the first colored voter in the United States under the Fifteenth Amendment, at an Election held in that city, March 31st, 1870.” 

- Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist

Each year the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) creates a national #BlackHistoryMonth theme.  This year’s theme is *African Americans and the Vote* which focuses on the #FifteenthAmendment, the rise of black political officers, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  In thinking about the ongoing struggle of African American’s right to vote, one must first consider the question, are “all men born free and equal”? 

This image was taken from an essay entitled “Opinions of Travellers,” a compilation of excerpts from various travel accounts including one from Captain Alexander on a rice plantation in South Carolina. He initially thought that the enslaved were well treated but soon realized that their want for education and lack of ordinary comforts was unreasonable.

He writes: “To suppose that slavery can long continue in this country, when other nations shall have freed themselves from the foulest strain which ever polluted humanity, is to contemplate a period when the United States will become a nuisance upon earth, and an object of derision to the whole world.”

-Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist

2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the #FifteenthAmendment which granted African American men the right to vote. 

This commemorative print celebrates the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, depicting a large central scene of the celebratory parade held in Baltimore in May of 1870 surrounded by several bust portraits of important figures. Among those pictured are Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist John Brown, and Frederic Douglass, alongside vignettes of African American troops, a classroom, congregations, and parade.

 -Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist