AMERICAN VOTING RIGHTS TIMELINE

1788

The first presidential election was held. There was only one candidate: George Washington! Voter's elected him again in 1792.

1870

The 15 th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.

African American men won the right to vote.

1886

The first voting machine was invented by Thomas Edison.

Congress complained that it worked too fast and refused to use it.

A new machine was invented in 1892 and used in Lockport , NY .

1920

American women won the right to vote with the passage of the 19 th Amendment.

1948

Even after the Citizenship Act of 1924 made Native Americans citizens of the United States, they were not allowed to vote.

Native Americans were the last group of Americans to receive their right to vote.

1964

The 24 th Amendment outlaws poll taxes and other mechanisms used to limit an individual or a group of people from voting.

1965

The Voting Rights Act penalizes states that require literacy tests and other mechanisms to deny individuals and groups of people from voting. It also provides federal oversight of elections in areas where groups of people have traditionally been denied the right to vote. African Americans and other disenfranchised groups vote in record numbers.

1972

The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 by the 26 th Amendment after massive youth protests. Men under the age of 21 had been required to serve in the military and fight for their country, yet were not allowed to vote.

1984

Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY) becomes the first woman vice presidential nominee on a major party presidential ticket.

2000

People were able to vote online for the first time in Arizona 's Democratic primary

WOMEN'S VOTING TIMELINE

1848

Women call for equal rights at the Seneca Falls Convention.

1872

Victoria Woodhull is the first woman to run for president of the United States .

1887

Susanna Madora Salter of Argonia , Kansas , is elected the first woman mayor.

1894

Estelle Reel Meyer is the first woman elected to a state office when she becomes Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wyoming .

1912

Juliette Low founds and becomes the first president of the Girl Scouts USA.

1916

Jeanette Rankin of Montana is the first woman representative elected to Congress.

1918

Anne Martin of Montana is the first woman to run for U.S. Senate.

1920

The 19th Amendment is ratified, giving women the right to vote in all national and state elections.

1922

Rebecca Felton is appointed the first female U.S. Senator.

1924

Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming and Miriam Ferguson of Texas are the first and second women governors in the United States .

1932

Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas is the first woman to win an election to the U.S. Senate.

1933

Frances Perkins becomes the first woman appointed to a Cabinet position (Secretary of Labor).

1944

Dorothy McElroy Vredenburgh of Alabama is the first woman appointed secretary of a national political party, the Democratic National Committee.

1960

Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Landa becomes the world's first elected woman prime minister.

1968

Shirley Chisholm of New York is the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives.

1974

Ella Grasso is elected Governor of Connecticut - the first woman elected a state governor in her own right.

1981

Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court.

1984

Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

1985

Wilma Mankiller becomes the first female chief of a Native American tribe, the Cherokee Nation.

1988

Susan Estrich is the first woman to run a national presidential campaign (Michael Dukakis).

1997

Madeleine Albright is appointed as the first female Secretary of State.

2001

Condoleeza Rice becomes the first woman National Security Advisor.

AFRICAN AMERICAN'S VOTING TIMELINE

1862

President Abraham Lincoln is the first president to meet with a group of black leaders.

1870

15th Amendment to the Constitution enables black males to vote. Hiram R. Revels is elected to fill the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Jefferson Davis. Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Alonzo J. Ransier is elected Lt. Governor of South Carolina before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1872.

1872

John R. Lynch is elected Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and will be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1873.

1875

Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi becomes the first black elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate

1920

The Republican National Convention declares that blacks must be admitted to all state and district conventions.

1946

President Harry S. Truman convenes the first Civil Rights Commission to study and make recommendations on race relations and racial discrimination.

1948

President Harry S. Truman desegregates the armed forces.

1954

President Dwight Eisenhower appoints J. Ernest Wilkins as Assistant Secretary of Labor. U.S. Supreme Court passes Brown v. Board of Education, requiring public facilities be desegregated.

1964

The Civil Rights Act is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, making it illegal to discriminate on account of race.

1965

The Voting Rights Act is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, encouraging previously countless disenfranchised blacks to vote.

1967

Thurgood Marshall becomes first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1975

President Gerald R. Ford appoints William T. Coleman Secretary of Transportation. James B. Parsons is named Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Chicago, the first black to hold such a position.

1989

President George H.W. Bush appoints Louis Sullivan Secretary of Health and Human Services.

1993

President Bill Clinton makes a record number of black appointments to the federal government.

2001

President George W. Bush appoints Colin Powell Secretary of State and Condoleezza Rice National Security Advisor.