Timeline February 1870

Events in February 1870 2

• 1870 Fifteenth Amendment Ratified US Constitution bars racial discrimination in voting The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on 3 February 1870, prohibiting federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It was the last of the three Reconstruction amendments following the Civil War. Enforcement would remain contested for nearly a century.
• 1870 Hiram Revels Sworn In as US Senator First African American to serve in the US Congress Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi was sworn in as a United States Senator on 25 February 1870, becoming the first African American to serve in the US Congress. He filled the seat once held by Jefferson Davis. His term lasted about one year.