The 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution ensuring 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.” On March 31, 1870, Thomas Peterson Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey became the first African American to vote under the authority of this new law.