WHEREAS, On March 25, 1869, Pennsylvania was the 12th state
to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment; and
WHEREAS, After Iowa became the 28th state to ratify on
February 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was officially
certified to the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, The first legislative act abolishing slavery in the
United States was passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly
with the passage of the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery
on March 1, 1780; and
WHEREAS, In Pennsylvania, unlike many states, free African-
American men had the right to vote until 1838; and
WHEREAS, On January 20, 1838, during the Pennsylvania
Constitutional Convention, legislators amended the Constitution
of Pennsylvania to exclude African-American men by restricting
suffrage to white men by rewording the language to "white
freeman"; and
WHEREAS, It would not be until the ratification of the
Fifteenth Amendment that African-American men were again given
the right to vote in Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, The Fifteenth Amendment has served as a crucial
defense against systemic voter disenfranchisement in the United
States, preserving and protecting the rights of citizens of the
United States by allowing an opportunity to exercise a critical
role in a democratic republic; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives commemorate the
150th anniversary of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States.
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