From Three-Fifths to Zero:

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 sa 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.