Saturday, December 5, 2009
The 15th Amendment
1 comments"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Ratified in 1870, and one of the Reconstruction amendments, the 15th amendment was targeted at providing African Americans with the right to vote.
Section 1: This section says that any legal citizen of the United States shall never have his/her right to vote denied by the United States or any State based on race, color, or if they had previously been in servitude.
Section 2: Once again, the authors of this amendment felt it appropriate to give the executive power of enforcement of this amendment to the people, indirectly through Congress, which they could exercise with appropriate legislation.
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CINCINNATI — For more than 100 years, Gov. William Allen andPresident James A. Garfield have represented Ohio in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol in Washington.
But Mr. Allen, it seems, held beliefs about race that are now embarrassing.
“He wasn’t pro-slavery, but he was not pro-civil rights,” said Tom Reider, research archivist for the Ohio Historical Society. “He did not favor extending suffrage to African-American males through the 15th Amendment.”
So the state has begun looking for an Ohioan to replace him, and there is no shortage of nominees. They include three presidents, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley andWilliam Howard Taft; the Olympic athlete Jesse Owens; and William Ellsworth Hoy, a deaf baseball player at the turn of the 20th century and a member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame who was known as Dummy.
Wilbur and Orville Wright have been ruled out, because the rules do not allow for two people to share a statue.
“We have a very tough decision in front of us,” said Mark Wagoner, a Republican state senator from Toledo and chairman of the State General Assembly committee charged with making the selection.
Ohio is not alone in deciding to swap out one of its two statues that each state contributes to the hall’s collection. Three states have done so since Congress authorized such changes in 2000.
Kansas and California have selected former presidents — Dwight D. Eisenhower andRonald Reagan, respectively — and Alabama recently placed Helen Keller’s statue in the collection. Three more have notified the Architect of the Capitol, who maintains the collection, of their intent: Michigan and Missouri want to include their respective native-son presidents, Gerald R. Ford and Harry S. Truman, while Arizona wants Senator Barry Goldwater.
But Ohio is different in having no specific replacement in mind.
“We’re trying to have fun with it, and really make it a celebration of Ohio history,” Mr. Wagoner said. “We’re trying to raise Ohioans’ interest in our rich history and make this a positive experience for people.”
One issue being raised is whether Ohio should select a political figure.
“It was President Kennedy who said there’s high honor in the political class, and public servants ought to have their own hall of fame,” said State Representative Tyrone K. Yates,Democrat of Cincinnati and a committee member. “That should be Statuary Hall. Otherwise it would be full of inventors, businessmen and others.”
While the names of many famous Ohioans have been mentioned, the obscure have also gotten attention. Last month, in Washington Court House, a city in the southeast part of the state, students in Paul LaRue’s high school history classes tried to persuade the committee to back James M. Ashley. Little known today, he was a Civil War-era congressman from Toledo and a Lincoln ally who championed and helped write the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery.
“We have no claim on him as favorite son,” Mr. LaRue said. “We call him an architect of freedom because he did a lot, and we feel he would be a good replacement for Governor Allen.”
Mr. Wagoner said his committee would make a recommendation in the spring, followed by a vote by the General Assembly.
The selection requires the approval of the governor and the Joint Committee on theLibrary of Congress in Washington. It is then up to Ohio to make the arrangements; a nonprofit foundation has been established to raise the estimated $250,000 to $500,000 needed for a new statue.
This article was chosen because it discusses a Capitol Delegate's opinion about the 15th amendment and whether or not African-Americans should have the right to vote.
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Ohio Looks to Replace a Capitol Delegate
Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times
The statute of William Allen is leaving the Capitol.
“He wasn’t pro-slavery, but he was not pro-civil rights,” said Tom Reider, research archivist for the Ohio Historical Society. “He did not favor extending suffrage to African-American males through the 15th Amendment.”
So the state has begun looking for an Ohioan to replace him, and there is no shortage of nominees. They include three presidents, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley andWilliam Howard Taft; the Olympic athlete Jesse Owens; and William Ellsworth Hoy, a deaf baseball player at the turn of the 20th century and a member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame who was known as Dummy.
Wilbur and Orville Wright have been ruled out, because the rules do not allow for two people to share a statue.
“We have a very tough decision in front of us,” said Mark Wagoner, a Republican state senator from Toledo and chairman of the State General Assembly committee charged with making the selection.
Ohio is not alone in deciding to swap out one of its two statues that each state contributes to the hall’s collection. Three states have done so since Congress authorized such changes in 2000.
Kansas and California have selected former presidents — Dwight D. Eisenhower andRonald Reagan, respectively — and Alabama recently placed Helen Keller’s statue in the collection. Three more have notified the Architect of the Capitol, who maintains the collection, of their intent: Michigan and Missouri want to include their respective native-son presidents, Gerald R. Ford and Harry S. Truman, while Arizona wants Senator Barry Goldwater.
But Ohio is different in having no specific replacement in mind.
“We’re trying to have fun with it, and really make it a celebration of Ohio history,” Mr. Wagoner said. “We’re trying to raise Ohioans’ interest in our rich history and make this a positive experience for people.”
One issue being raised is whether Ohio should select a political figure.
“It was President Kennedy who said there’s high honor in the political class, and public servants ought to have their own hall of fame,” said State Representative Tyrone K. Yates,Democrat of Cincinnati and a committee member. “That should be Statuary Hall. Otherwise it would be full of inventors, businessmen and others.”
While the names of many famous Ohioans have been mentioned, the obscure have also gotten attention. Last month, in Washington Court House, a city in the southeast part of the state, students in Paul LaRue’s high school history classes tried to persuade the committee to back James M. Ashley. Little known today, he was a Civil War-era congressman from Toledo and a Lincoln ally who championed and helped write the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery.
“We have no claim on him as favorite son,” Mr. LaRue said. “We call him an architect of freedom because he did a lot, and we feel he would be a good replacement for Governor Allen.”
Mr. Wagoner said his committee would make a recommendation in the spring, followed by a vote by the General Assembly.
The selection requires the approval of the governor and the Joint Committee on theLibrary of Congress in Washington. It is then up to Ohio to make the arrangements; a nonprofit foundation has been established to raise the estimated $250,000 to $500,000 needed for a new statue.
This article was chosen because it discusses a Capitol Delegate's opinion about the 15th amendment and whether or not African-Americans should have the right to vote.
_______________________________________
I chose this article simply because it is a recent event in which the 15th amendment is addressed.
December 07, 2009 4:06 AM
It's quite interesting how Southern leaders found a way to get around the 15th amendment legally. Luckily, there is no more discrimination when it comes to voting.