This is an iHeart Podcast. Did you know Tide has been upgraded to provide an even better clean and cold water? Tide is specifically designed to fight any stain you throw at it. even in cold. Butter?
Yep. Chocolate ice cream? Sure thing. Barbecue sauce? tides got you covered.
You don't need to use warm water. Additionally, Tied pods let you confidently fight tough stains with new ColdZheim technology. Just remember. If it's gotta be clean, it's gotta be tied. Stop settling for weak sound.
It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra-durable LGX Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG X Boom. And for a limited time, save 25% at lg.com with code FALL25.
Bring the bowl. X boom. Let's be real. Life happens. Kids still, pets shed, and accidents are inevitable.
Find a sofa that can keep up at washable sofas.com. Starting at just $699, our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out. you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry-free living. Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics. They're kid-proof, pet-friendly, and built for everyday life.
Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. Neat flexibility, our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space, whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus, they're earth-friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mess-proof sofa. Visit washablefas.com today and save.
That's washablefas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Looking for entertainment everyone will love? TiVo Plus has you covered with over 300 free channels. From movies for Family Night to kids' shows, live news, sports, and your favorite TV series, all in one place.
No sign-ups, no credit card required. Just turn on and enjoy. And with new channels and fresh content added all the time, there's always something to watch. Teebo Plus. Free, binge-worthy, and always on.
Check us out at Teevo.com. This message is brought to you by AppleCard. Each Apple product, like the iPhone, is thoughtfully designed by skilled designers. The titanium Apple Card is no different. It's laser-etched, has no numbers, and it earns you daily cash on everything you buy, including 3% back on everything at Apple.
Apply for Apple Card on your iPhone in minutes. Subject to credit approval, AppleCard issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at AppleCard.com. And we continue with our American stories and here to tell another great American story. is the Jack Miller Center's editorial officer and historian Elliot Drago.
This is the story of what happened shortly after the ratification. of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Prohibiting a citizen's right to vote. on account of race, color, or previous condition servitude. Let's take a listen. Americans today understand the saying, every vote matters.
Whether affected by hanging chads, butterfly ballots, or razor-thin vote counts, every vote matters because it allows one to exercise citizenship. But what did every vote matters, voting, and citizenship mean in the early history of the United States? Shm. Unlike today's federal laws, which are designed to protect voters and voting rights. In past times, individual states determined who could vote and, in a sense, determined who was a citizen.
During the early Republic, many states legislated voting rights and citizenship as the purview of white property-owning men. By the eighteen thirties, however, As the United States expanded its territory and witnessed the arrival of millions of immigrants and the creation of a new two-party system, most states enfranchised all white men. Women and black Americans were generally written out of state voting rights legislation. leading to a suffrage movement that galvanized many of the nation's most aggressive activists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, to clamor for women's right to vote. These women's struggles bore fruit with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, albeit decades after the founders of the movement had passed away.
Black Americans too fought for the right to vote throughout the 19th century. Like their female counterparts, Men like Robert Purvis and Frederick Douglass delivered fiery speeches to agitate and then attract national attention. To Douglas, Black men deserve the right to vote as a matter of, quote, simple justice. In 1857, the Dred Scott decision reinforced the notion of black Americans as non-citizens. further hampering their right to vote.
As the nation itself faced the consequences of slavery during the Civil War, black men who fought and bled for the Union argued that their wartime service entitled them to vote. After the war, the rise of the Republican Party in the South and the election of black political leaders to local, state, and national office. initiated the process of debating and drafting a new voting rights amendment. Five years after the war ended, Congress ratified the 15th Amendment. which read 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.
Returning to Every Vote Matters and the relationship between voting and citizenship. The 15th Amendment not only initially prevented states from dictating who voted, It also naturally fulfilled the 13th Amendment and 14th Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery by bringing more black Americans into the political community as citizens. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to black Americans and provided equal protection under the laws through due process, which acted as a shield for citizens whose lives after slavery were still quite precarious. The fulfillment of these two preceding amendments, the 15th Amendment, strengthened the political power of former slaves and black men, making them active citizens via the right to vote and helped more Americans advance the founding principle of equality.
Making the Fifteenth Amendment a tangible reality required one thing. a black man exercising his right to vote. This man was Thomas Mundy Peterson. The son of a freed woman, Peterson resided in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, once a major hub of the colonial slave trade. Thousands of enslaved Africans had come through Perth Amboy, and by 1800 the population of enslaved people in the state exceeded 12,000.
While New Jersey did pass gradual emancipation laws in 1804, the state contained two-thirds of all enslaved people living in the North in the 1830s. and would not formally abolish slavery until 1846. At the same time, given the number of black Americans in Perth Amboy, many of whom lived in fear of slave catchers and kidnappers, it was fitting that the city was also home to a community of radical abolitionists and featured a number of underground railroad stations. By the post-Civil War years, Perth Amboy's population encapsulated the tragic and brutal legacy of slavery with the resilience of black and white Americans willing to risk everything to ensure freedom. Within 24 hours of Secretary of State Hamilton Fish certifying the Fifteenth Amendment.
Peterson exercised his freedom and citizenship by becoming the first black American to vote in the United States election under the protection of the federal government. The election itself was a referendum to either revise or jettison Perth Amboy's town charter. Peterson explained. As I advanced to the polls, one man offered me a ticket bearing the words Revised Charter. and another one marked No Charter.
I thought I would not vote to give up our charter after holding it so long.
So I chose a revised charter ballot. Ballot in hand, he went to Perth Amboy's City Hall and cast his vote to amend, rather than eliminate, the town's charter. Two crucial points can be made about Peterson's historic vote. First, as the historian Gordon Bond pointed out, This was the first time that anyone had cast a ballot that was both guaranteed and protected by the U. S.
Constitution. Thomas Peterson consummated our modern understanding of the relationship between citizenship and suffrage in the fullest possible sense at the time. While it would take decades for American women to receive the right to vote, Peterson's vote and the votes of other black men showed how the Constitution could protect citizens from being denied their voting rights. This active and protective function of the Fifteenth Amendment gave weight to the words of President Ulysses S. Grant.
who after the amendment's ratification delivered a special message to Congress in which he called the amendment measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day. Second, Though Peterson's vote to amend and not eliminate the town charter seems mundane, it in fact emphasized how the strength of the Constitution lies in its flexibility. As Americans worked towards their cherished founding ideals, they exhausted much blood and treasure to bring about constitutional change in the form of amendments. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution arguably represented the most radical changes in American history. While not as seemingly radical as those amendments, Peterson's choice to amend the town charter reflects something many Americans take for granted.
The people themselves can change the Constitution to better realize our founding principles. Though important, Thomas Mundy Peterson's vote does not overshadow the terrible rollback of voting rights that permeated the nation after Reconstruction ended in 1877. The rise of white supremacists in the South, the terror of the KKK, and arbitrary voting requirements prevented many black Americans from participating in the nation's body politic. Constitutional protections that failed in the short term ended up ceding in the long term, however, as more Americans began working together to reinstitute the true meaning of citizenship and voting. At times, this noble endeavor to secure the vote for black Americans and women was marked by notable setbacks.
That said, The 15th Amendment's ratification and immediate realization by Peterson solidified the right to vote as an attainable ideal of citizenship, making every vote matters a notion worth preserving and celebrating each election cycle. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Craig Hengler. And a special thanks to Elliot Trago. He's the Jack Miller Center's editorial officer. An historian Jack Miller Center is a nationwide network of scholars and teachers Dedicated to educating the next generation about America's founding principles and history.
To learn more, go to jackmillercenter.org. That's jackmillercenter.org. The story of America's most important franchise, and that is the right to vote, and what it means. and why voting matters, that story, and how the franchise was expanded. to African Americans.
Thomas Mundy Peterson being the first black to vote. after the 15th Amendment. That story. Here are on our American stories. Stop settling for weak sound.
It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra-durable LGX Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG X Boom. And for a limited time, save 25% at lg.com with code FALL25.
Bring a bowl. X Boom. Let's be real. Life happens. Kids spill, pets shed, and accidents are inevitable.
Find a sofa that can keep up at washable sofas.com. Starting at just $699, our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out. So you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry-free living. Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics. They're kid-proof, pet-friendly, and built for everyday life.
Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. need flexibility, our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space, whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus, they're earth-friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mis-proof sofa. Visit washablefas.com today and save.
That's washablefas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Over 300 channels, zero bills. That's TiVo Plus. Curated movies, news series, and sports highlights.
No credit card, no logins, just TV that gets straight to the good stuff. Grab the remote, press play, and start watching TiVo Plus. Free, binge-worthy, always on. Check us out at TiVo.com. It's an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit.
Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in. Ask questions. Stay connected.
Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.
It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm a smachhalid in Washington, DC. I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iHeart podcast.
