From Three-Fifths to Zero: Implications of the Constitution for African-American Women, 1787–1870

In 1987 the United States began celebrations marking the bicentennial of the Constitution. As these celebrations occur, it is important to discuss some of the implications of that document for African-American women. This paper examines the struggle for “wholeness” of the African-American woman, who evolved initially as three-fifths of a person in 1787 and moved to zero with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Despite their hard-fought, sometimes subtle, battles against racism and sexism, the Fifteenth Amendment underscored their omission and their marginal status under the supreme law of the land – the Constitution.