The Fourteenth Amendment encouraged southern states to enfranchise blacks but did not force them to do so.

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The Fourteenth Amendment prohibited states from denying suffrage to "any male inhabitants" over the age of 21, regardless of race, and penalized states that did so by reducing their representation in Congress. However, it did not explicitly require states to enfranchise black citizens, and in practice, southern states found ways to circumvent this requirement through poll taxes, literacy tests, and other discriminatory measures.

The Fourteenth Amendment Encouraged Southern States to Enfranchise Blacks but Did