14th And 15th Amendments
Define and discuss the purpose of the 14th and 15th Amendments? How successful were these Amendments? Specifically, address the safety of African Americans during the reconstruction? How did the Compromise of 1877 affect the South for future decades?
Volume I, Chapter 12, pages 299-323 &
Chapter 13, pages 324 -345
The Fourteenth Amendment changed the Constitution by compelling states to accept their residents as citizens and to guarantee that their rights as citizens would be safeguarded. Its first section guaranteed citizenship to every person born in the United States. This included virtually every black person. It made each person a citizen of the state in which he or she resided. It defined the specific rights of citizens …show more content…
and protected those rights against the authority of state governments. Citizens had the right to due process (usually a trial) before they could lose their life, liberty, or property.
The Fourteenth Amendment vested African Americans with the same rights of citizenship other Americans possessed. The amendment also threatened to deprive states of representation in Congress if they denied black men the vote. The amendment mandated that if any state—northern or southern—did not allow adult male citizens to vote, then the number of representatives it was entitled to in Congress would be reduced in proportion to the number of men denied the right to vote.
Black politicians were often the victims of racial discrimination when they tried to use public transportation and accommodations such as hotels and restaurants.
The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1870. It stipulated that a person could not be deprived of the right to vote because of race: “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.” Black people, abolitionists, and reformers hailed the amendment as the culmination of the crusade to end slavery and give black people the same rights as white people. The amendment said nothing about women voting and did not outlaw poll taxes, literacy tests, and property qualifications that could disfranchise citizens.
The African Americans had very little safety of during the reconstruction due to the beatings, murders, rapes, and riots, often with little or no provocation.
In South Carolina, a white clergyman shot and killed a black man who protested when another black man was removed from a church service. In Texas, one black man was killed for not removing his hat in the presence of a white man and another for refusing to relinquish a bottle of whiskey. A black woman was beaten for “using insolent language,” and a black worker in Alabama was killed for speaking sharply to a white overseer. In Virginia, a black veteran was beaten after announcing he had been proud to serve in the Union Army. The Freedmen’s Bureau was usually unwilling and unable to protect the black population. Black people left to defend themselves were usually in no position to retaliate. Instead, they sometimes attempted to bring the perpetrators to justice. For black people, the system of justice was thoroughly unjust. Although black people could now testify against white people in court, southern juries remained all white and refused to convict white people charged with harming black people. In Texas during 1865 and 1866, 500 white men were indicted for murdering black people. None were
convicted.
The Compromise of 1877 affected the South for future decades. Threats, violence, and bloodshed accompanied the elections of 1876 in the South, but the national results were confusing and contradictory. In 1877 Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the South, and the Republican administration in those states collapsed. Democrats immediately took control. Redemption was now complete. White Democrats controlled each of the former Confederate states. Henry Adams, a black leader from Louisiana, explained what had happened: “The whole South—every state in the South had got into the hands of the very men that held us as slaves.”
Cited from Darlene Hine, William Hine, and Stanley Harrold. The African-American Odyssey: Volume I, 5th ed. New Jersey: Pearson 2011
Volume I, Chapter 12, pages 299-323 &
Chapter 13, pages 324 -345
The Fourteenth Amendment changed the Constitution by compelling states to accept their residents as citizens and to guarantee that their rights as citizens would be safeguarded. Its first section guaranteed citizenship to every person born in the United States. This included virtually every black person. It made each person a citizen of the state in which he or she resided. It defined the specific rights of citizens …show more content…
and protected those rights against the authority of state governments. Citizens had the right to due process (usually a trial) before they could lose their life, liberty, or property.
The Fourteenth Amendment vested African Americans with the same rights of citizenship other Americans possessed. The amendment also threatened to deprive states of representation in Congress if they denied black men the vote. The amendment mandated that if any state—northern or southern—did not allow adult male citizens to vote, then the number of representatives it was entitled to in Congress would be reduced in proportion to the number of men denied the right to vote.
Black politicians were often the victims of racial discrimination when they tried to use public transportation and accommodations such as hotels and restaurants.
The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1870. It stipulated that a person could not be deprived of the right to vote because of race: “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.” Black people, abolitionists, and reformers hailed the amendment as the culmination of the crusade to end slavery and give black people the same rights as white people. The amendment said nothing about women voting and did not outlaw poll taxes, literacy tests, and property qualifications that could disfranchise citizens.
The African Americans had very little safety of during the reconstruction due to the beatings, murders, rapes, and riots, often with little or no provocation.
In South Carolina, a white clergyman shot and killed a black man who protested when another black man was removed from a church service. In Texas, one black man was killed for not removing his hat in the presence of a white man and another for refusing to relinquish a bottle of whiskey. A black woman was beaten for “using insolent language,” and a black worker in Alabama was killed for speaking sharply to a white overseer. In Virginia, a black veteran was beaten after announcing he had been proud to serve in the Union Army. The Freedmen’s Bureau was usually unwilling and unable to protect the black population. Black people left to defend themselves were usually in no position to retaliate. Instead, they sometimes attempted to bring the perpetrators to justice. For black people, the system of justice was thoroughly unjust. Although black people could now testify against white people in court, southern juries remained all white and refused to convict white people charged with harming black people. In Texas during 1865 and 1866, 500 white men were indicted for murdering black people. None were
convicted.
The Compromise of 1877 affected the South for future decades. Threats, violence, and bloodshed accompanied the elections of 1876 in the South, but the national results were confusing and contradictory. In 1877 Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the South, and the Republican administration in those states collapsed. Democrats immediately took control. Redemption was now complete. White Democrats controlled each of the former Confederate states. Henry Adams, a black leader from Louisiana, explained what had happened: “The whole South—every state in the South had got into the hands of the very men that held us as slaves.”
Cited from Darlene Hine, William Hine, and Stanley Harrold. The African-American Odyssey: Volume I, 5th ed. New Jersey: Pearson 2011