During the Reconstruction Era, Congress passed and ratified the Fifteenth Amendment, a period when the progressive faction of the Republican Party held significant influence in the legislature. This era was remarkable for granting African American men the right to vote, and several even secured seats in Congress. Among them, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce made history as the first Black U.S. Senators, both representing Mississippi. However, following their terms, nearly a century passed before another African American, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, was elected to the Senate in 1967.
Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 when federal troops withdrew from the Southern states, allowing white supremacist Democrats to regain control. As a result, voting rights for Black men were systematically stripped away through court rulings, state and local legislation, and oppressive measures such as poll taxes, literacy tests, voter intimidation, and electoral fraud. One particularly effective tactic was the "grandfather clause," which limited voting rights to men who, or whose male ancestors, had been eligible to vote before 1867. Since Black men were denied the right to vote before the Fifteenth Amendment, this law effectively excluded them from the electorate.