Day 23 of Black History Month challenge: One black history post everyday for the entire month. . . On March 31, 1870, one day after the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which allowed him the right to vote, Thomas Peterson became the first African American to cast a ballot in a U.S. election under the provisions of the 15th Amendment. The citizens of Perth Amboy, N.J. were voting to settle a disagreement over whether to revise the town charter or abandon it in favor of a township form of government. . . Peterson cast his historic vote on March 31, 1870. The iconic vote was cast in a local election in Perth Amboy, New Jersey for the town’s charter. Gary Sullivan of the News Tribune stated, “Exercising his right to vote in a local election on March 31, 1870. Peterson became the first black man in the United States to cast a ballot. The amendment had been ratified on February 3, 1870, and within just two months the Fifteenth Amendment was put to use. . . The citizens of Perth Amboy, New Jersey later awarded Thomas Mundy Peterson a medallion in 1884. The medallion had the face of Abraham Lincoln engraved on one side. While the side opposite to that the medallion reads “presented by citizens of Perth Amboy N.J. to Thomas Peterson the first colored voter in the U.S. under the provisions of the 15th Amendment at an election held in that city March 13, 1870.” These Reconstruction Amendments and The Emancipation Proclamation freed all African Americans in the Confederate States while the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship of the United States. After the end of the war the Fifteenth Amendment gave every citizen of the United States the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous servitude. . . #voting #votingmatters #uspolitics #firstvote #votingballot #newjourney #15thamendment #peterson #reconstruction #presidentsday #presidential #blackfirst #blackpolitics (at Metuchen, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/B865TOOg4kT/?igshid=17n176fxp9all
