Black men picking up muskets to fight for their own freedom are the Fifteenth Amendment's genesis. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the vote because of his "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The Fifteenth's purpose was to strike at official efforts to impede African Americans from voting, a purpose as relevant today as ever. America's greatness is in its persevering in the slow fight to realize its promise.