国立アメリカ歴史博物館さんのインスタグラム写真 - (国立アメリカ歴史博物館Instagram)「When voters cast their ballots in 1868, they were asked to decide if and how the nation's democracy should change to include Black men. Just a few years before, more than 180,000 Black men had joined the U.S. armed forces during the Civil War. (This print from the 1860s was used as a recruitment poster for the United States Colored Troops). After the war, millions of African Americans were newly freed from slavery. It was up to voters to decide: should Black men be granted the right to vote? Of the various groups who fought to keep Black men's suffrage at the forefront of political debate in the 1860s, none were more important than African Americans themselves. Well before the Civil War ended, African Americans made the case that their ability to protect their rights and freedoms depended on their right to shape politics directly at the polls. Many Black commentators pointed out the hypocrisy of asking African Americans to serve in the nation's military but then denying them suffrage when they returned from the battlefield. Delegates at the the 1864 National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, New York, expressed this point eloquently in the conference's address to the nation, asking "Are we good enough to use bullets, and not good enough to use ballots?" Voters' answer in 1868 was yes—but the election was a close one. Debates over Black men's right to vote divided both the nation's political parties and the electorate. Two years after the election, the question of Black men's suffrage was answered with the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and its stipulation that citizens' right to vote cannot be restricted based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The 15th Amendment wasn't the beginning or the end of African Americans' fight for freedom and full citizenship. You can explore this longer #VoteHistory today using a new learning resource created by @nmaahc, "The Fight for Voting Rights": s.si.edu/2HJ8Bqn #AmericanHistory #History #AfricanAmericanHistory #BlackHistory #CivilWarHistory #ElectionHistory #CampaignHistory #15thAmendment #AmericanDemocracy」11月3日 2時06分