Tennessee has ratified the 15th Amendment, 127 years after it was added to the U.S. Constitution.
The 15th Amendment guarantees that no one could be denied the right to vote because of their "race, color or previous condition of servitude."The state's House of Representatives and the Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to make a-mends, approving a resolution that ceremoniously ratified what has been the law of the land since 1870. Tennessee became the last state to formally ratify the amendment.
"It's embarrassing, only that the state hasn't done it already," said state Sen. Steve Cohen.
The 15th amendment was submitted to the states after it was approved by the 40th Congress on Feb. 26, 1869. Three-quarters of the 37 states in existence then approved it.
Many states ratified the amendment later, including Delaware in 1901; Oregon in 1959; California in 1962; Maryland in 1973; and Kentucky in 1976.