We are reading two impactful Amendments: Amendments XV and XVI.
Amendment XV clarifies the right to vote of all citizens (implied male citizens) no matter what their race, color, or if they had earlier been enslaved. Amendment XVI makes income tax constitutional.
Transcript from National Archives (archives.gov). Explanation after each Amendment is bolded and italicized.
AMENDMENT XV
Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.
Section 1.
“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–“
Section 2.
“The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
This Amendment clarified the right to vote for all male citizens. It was necessary because Black males were being subject to voting suppression throughout the former enslaving states, as well as other states.
Note the date this Amendment was ratified: 1870. It is a wonderful Amendment, but it was not enforced until the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Black voters were subject to tests, taxes, and even violence until then. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court rolled back many of the safety measures of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Human Rights Watch reports:
Since the Supreme Court’s decision, states and localities have brazenly pushed forward discriminatory changes to voting practices, such as changing district boundaries to disadvantage select voters, instituting more onerous voter identification laws, and changing polling locations with little notice. These laws especially disenfranchise people of color, the elderly, low-income people, transgender people and people with disabilities. Voters are more vulnerable to discrimination now than at any time since the Voting Rights Act was signed into law more than fifty years ago.
AMENDMENT XVI
Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.
Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
The first income tax was instituted to help fund the Union effort during the Civil War. It was in force until the end of the War. The need for income tax on people and businesses was a topic of debate until Congress approved Amendment XVI in 1909 but it was not ratified until 1913.
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