Black suffrage refers to black people's right to vote and has long been an issue in countries established under conditions of black minorities. United States Suffrage in the United States has had many advances and setbacks. Prior to the Civil War and the Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution some free Black men in the United States were given the right to vote. However, this right was often abridged, or taken away. Following Emancipation, Black people were theoretically equal before the law, including theoretical suffrage for Black women from 1920. Black men were given voting rights in 1870, while black women were effectively banned until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. When the United States Constitution was ratified (1789), a small number of free blacks were among the voting citizens (male property owners) in some states. Most black men in the United States did not gain the right to vote until after the American Civil War. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude." This was before the former Confederate States of America implemented "Jim Crow" regulations that had the effect of denying the vote to many Blacks. "Black suffrage" in the United States in the aftermath of the American Civil War explicitly referred to the voting rights of only black men. All women still had many hurdles to face before obtaining this right. The passage of the 19th Amendment, which was ratified by the United States Congress on August 18 and certified as law on August 26, 1920 technically granted women the right to vote. In fall 1920, many Black women showed up at the polls. It was only after the Voting Rights Act was passed nearly a half century later, on August 6, 1965, that black women voted freely. Australia The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 restricted the right of Aboriginal Australians to vote in Australian federal elections. This Act was changed in 1962, when the Commonwealth Electoral Act was amended. British Empire and United Kingdom Beginning in 1265, a small number of landed aristocrats and gentry had the right to vote for members of the Parliament of England and Knights of the Shire. From 1432, only forty-shilling freeholders held the parliamentary franchise. Suffrage was restricted to males by custom rather than statute. Olaudah Equiano and