APPENDIX F

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 9, 1962

WHEREAS, The 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the Legislatures of the States of the United States by the 40th Congress on the 26th day of February, 1869; and

WHEREAS, The said 15th Amendment was declared to have been ratified in a proclamation by the Secretary of State on the 30th day of March, 1870, and thus became a constitutional provision; and

WHEREAS, The objective of this amendment was to forbid depriving Negroes of their voting rights on the basis of race or previous condition of slavery; and

WHEREAS, The said 15th Amendment has long been a vital part of the Constitution of the United States and should be ratified by the State of California to show the concurrence of this great State with the principles therein enunciated; and

WHEREAS, The said 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides as follows:
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; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, a majority of all the members elected to each house of said Legislature voting in favor thereof, That the said 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States be and the same is hereby ratified by the Legislature of the State of California; and be it further

Resolved, That certified copies of the foregoing preamble and resolution be forwarded by the Governor of the State of California to the President of the United States, the Secretary of State of the United States, the President pro Tempore of the Senate of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States.


[On March 30, 1962, the Senate adopted the resolution by a vote of thirty-one to zero. (California, Senate Journal, 1962, 283.) The Assembly adopted the resolution by a vote of sixty-six to zero on April 3, 1962. (California, Assembly Journal, 1962, 564.) The Sacramento Bee called the Legislature’s attention to the fact that California had never ratified the Fifteenth Amendment. Senator Albert S. Rodda introduced the resolution in the Senate and Assemblyman Edwin L. Z’berg sponsored the measure in the lower house.]