Many African American women and men had long dreamed of having the right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state granted them the privilege. Dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the civil rights movement in the early and mid-1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the right voting. This would not have happened if the civil rights movement had not happened. The Nineteenth Amendment also would not have happened without the civil rights movement. The freedom to vote is now in the majority thanks to the fight of those involved in the civil rights movement, as well as African-Americans and women who fought for their right to vote. The civil rights movement, an extremely difficult time for many, led to the freedom of voting. The History Reference Center states that throughout most of American history, property owners and tax-paying white men were denied the right to vote only. Men, other ethnicities, and women could only vote if their state law allowed them to do so. (Wermiel np) According to the book Selma and The Voting Rights Act, even though President Abraham Lincoln declared slaves free in 1863 with his Emancipation Proclamation, whites still kept blacks under their command with almost no rights still in 1960s. (Aretha, age 11) The UXL Encyclopedia of United States History reports that when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in an attempt to protect the rights of black citizens after the Civil War, the South launched the black codes. States adopted the Black Codes, laws created by Southern whites, to limit the rights and freedoms of black people. (Benson, Brannen and Valentine, 297) The Ku Klux Klan, a secret group of white southerners...... middle of paper ....... If the civil rights movement, the fight for Afro rights -Americans to Vote, or the women's suffrage movement had not occurred, many of us would not have the right to vote today. Works Cited Aretha, David. Selma and the Voting Rights Act. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2008. Print. Benson, Sonia, Daniel E. Brannen Jr. and Rebecca Valentine. UXL Encyclopedia of United States History. Ed. Lawrence W. Baker and Sarah Hermsen. Flight. 2 and Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, Cengage, 2009. Print. Carter, David C. “Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Advanced World Book. World Book. 2014. Internet. January 31, 2014. Kauffman, Heather. “Women’s right to vote.” Issues and Controversies in American History. Infobase, October 1, 2005. Web. January 31, 2014. Wermiel, Stephen J. “Heroes in the Fight for Voting Rights.” » Human rights. 39.1 (2012): 29. Historical Reference Center. Internet. February 6. 2014.