Whereas the theme for Black History Month 2020 is African Americans and the Vote, which emphasizes the lessons we have learned from the struggle for voting rights for African-American men and women, and the continued challenges they face in exercising that right; Whereas African-American men first obtained the right to vote following the Civil War with the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in 1870; Whereas this year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment; Whereas the 15th Amendment states that 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 ; Whereas following the ratification of the 15th Amendment, many States, particularly in the South, enacted poll taxes, literacy tests, and other means of disenfranchising African Americans; Whereas women of all ethnicities gained the right to vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified; Whereas this year marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment; Whereas the 19th Amendment states that 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 sex ; Whereas, in 1965, nearly a century after the ratification of the 15th Amendment, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law; Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited the use of literacy tests and provided for Federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-White population had not registered to vote, among other provisions; Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 also required jurisdictions with a history of voter suppression to obtain preclearance from the Federal Government for any new voting practice or procedure