 The 15th Amendment, one of the three Reconstruction Amendments, was passed on February 26, 1869. The amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the rights 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. The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870, almost a year later from when it was passed, but the promise of the 15th Amendment would not fully be realized for almost a century. With poll taxes, literacy tests, and other means, the southern states were able to prevent African Americans from voting. It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the south could register to vote. The Act was signed into effect by President Lyndon Johnson aimed to ban all state laws from preventing the African American people from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment.