District of Columbia Suffrage Act

District of Columbia Suffrage Act

Other short titles	District of Columbia Franchise Bill
Long title	An act to regulate the elective franchise in the District of Columbia
Enacted by	the 39th United States Congress
Effective	1867-01-08

The District of Columbia Suffrage Act was an 1867 federal law that granted voting rights to all males over the age of 21 in the District of Columbia, United States. The franchise was withheld from "welfare or charity cases, those under guardianship, those convicted of major crimes and those who had voluntarily sheltered Confederate troops or spies during the Civil War", but there were no race-based restrictions, and thus it was the first law passed in the United States guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote in public elections.^[1]