The key provisions of the thirteenth amendment, the fourteenth amendment and the fifteenth amendment were abolishment of slavery and involuntary servitude, granted citizenship to all children who born or naturalized in the United States, declared state may not deny person’s life, liberty, property without the due process of law and prohibition on the federal and state government from stopping any citizens the right to vote because of their race and color. The main issues that were addressed by the thirteenth amendment were making the United States free of slavery, allowing only punishment for the crime if the party will be convicted to existed in the United States. In addition, the fourteenth amendment allowed born identification to children…
Supreme Court discussed the conditions surrounding the implementation of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. It argued about the past practices of racial segregation and views of the proponents and opponents of the Amendment when drafted by Congress were rather different therefore, the question presented before the Court should not be determined by the circumstances in which it was adopted. Furthermore, the Court asserted that the status of public education has changed from the time the Amendment was written. At the time, in the South, the movement supporting free education had not been initiated. White children were mostly educated in privately while education in the African American community was absent.…
The road begins with the end of the Civil war and the ratification of the thirteenth amendment, which was a straight road ahead at full speed. Then the road gets better when crossing the Freedmen's Bureau Bridge which transitioned freedmen from jobless and in poverty to the “other side of the bridge” which had employment and education options. However, soon after there was a road block, the Black Codes. The black codes limited the rights of blacks and tried to keep them from citizenship be they found a detour with full speed ahead. This detour was the 15th amendment which protected the right to vote for blacks. Then there was a slight turn away from citizenship and a bump in the road. The bump was the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws separated…
Over time the Bill of Rights was amended to meet the needs of an evolving nation. These include the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery, the 14th Amendment guaranteed equal protection for African Americans,the 15th Amendment which gave African Americans the right to vote, and the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement was a defining moment in history because it denounced the unequal treatment of humans based on race. During the 1950’s, the United States operated under an apartheid like system that legalized white supremacy. It set forth series of protests and cases that improved conditions and often made segregation illegal. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case came about when Homer Plessy, an African American,…
Before the ratification of the 14th and 15th amendments African Americans had almost no rights, and not to long before the 14th and 15 amendments were passed they were slaves. Even after the African American’s were freed they still had almost no rights, and in the south almost nobody recognized the few rights that African Americans did have. It was not until the 14th and 15th amendments were passed that African Americans started getting basic rights that all people should have. Before the 14th and 15ty amendments were passed African Americans had no rights, but when the amendments were passed they were granted full equality but then began to battle the oppression placed upon them by the state governments. The 13th amendment which freed all…
After the resolution of the Civil War, rich whites in the South scrambled to regain economic control and superiority. To prevent blacks and poor whites from joining together to challenge them, a series of Jim Crow laws that segregated blacks from whites were created (Cates 50). In this time, various legal decisions played instrumental roles in the transition to a heavily segregated south. Through the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision, the government legalized segregation which led to the establishment of myriad Jim Crow laws that stripped African Americans of their Constitutional rights.…
The Civil War was an extremely messy and complicated event in American History. While there are several factors that led to the Southern states to secede from the Union, it is historically impossible to pinpoint the last bullet fired. Moreover, in academia there is a barrage of opinions on what was the deciding factor for the Civil War; one thing it is evident is that there was animosity between both sides since the inception of the United States. Additionally, one has to examine the proposed amendments to the Constitution before the Civil War to notice that the jargon used never used the word ‘slavery.’ For instance, in February 1861, Representative Thomas Corwin proposed his and amendment that barred his last name to the 36th Congress that guaranteed the seceding states that the federal government would not intervene with the particular domestic institutions; however, the word slavery was never used in the document. Stipulating that the amendment had passed, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would have been unconstitutional, and the banning of slavery would never have occurred.…
The 13,14 and 15th Amendments were the first amendments made to the U.S. constitution in 60 years. Known as the Civil War Amendments, they were designed to ensure the equality for recently emancipated slaves. The 13th amendment explicitly banned slavery. An excepton was made for punishment of a crime. Theis amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce the article through legilsation.…
One court case that illustrates the power the Supreme Court has over our daily rights is Brown v. Board of Education. This case emphasizes the Supreme Courts influence throughout history. From the late 1800's to this case in 1954, public places were segregated for Blacks and whites and was said to be acceptable as long as they were equal. The Jim Crow Laws were set up to support segregation which significantly impacted African American rights. This "separate but equal" formula had been…
law for states to deny citizenship on the basis of race. Although this was a step in the right direction for a rationalized solution to citizen rights for more egalitarianism within the nation, the political and civil inequality was only set to grow further. Following the fourteenth amendment came the equal protection clause and fifteenth amendment, both set to help solidify the groundwork for a better United States. To all egalitarians dismay, the introduction of Jim Crow Laws, laws that promoted the segregation and discrimination of African Americans¬, paved the way for further inequality. Jim Crow Laws authorized the segregation of many public sites such as schools, hospitals, and even water fountains. This unjust practice was fought against by many, unfortunately, to add…
The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution happened after the War Reconstruction .It was meant to secure the rights of former slaves. It was proposed on June 13, 1866. It was made official on July 9, 1868. The amendment tells a broad definition of citizenship. For example the overruling of Dred Scott v. Sandford which had excluded slaves from possessing Constitutional rights. The amendment requires states to provide equal protection under law to all persons within their jurisdictions and was used in the 20th century to get rid of racial segregation in the…
The the fourteenth amendment addresses “ many aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens… the phrase in the amendment is "equal protection of the laws", which figures prominently in a wide variety of landmark cases…” (Cornell University Law School). In consideration of these amendments the supreme court decided on May 18, 1996 that the state law was with is the constitutional boundaries as along as the separate accommodations for the races were equal that this was all the constitution could enforce. As justice Brown determined that the 14th amendment intended to create absolute equality for all races. In other terms segregation does not constitute in itself unlawful…
In 1865, Amendment Thirteen of the United States was ratified. The article states that all slaves residing in the nation or any of its corresponding territories are deemed emancipated. (Document A) Though the article does publicly mandate emancipation, it fails in successfully granting freedom to previous slaves. Southern states imposed “black codes” upon the newly freedmen. These diminishing codes restricted various activities and behaviors of the black community. Many included the prevention of interracial marriage, black testaments against whites in court of law, and jobs outside of agriculture. Clearly, the Thirteenth Amendment was not strictly imposed upon the once rebellious southern states. Three years later, congress decided to enact another article that would annul the previously mandated Dred Scott Decision of 1957, which states that blacks could not be legal citizens. This newly established document was titled the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment itself stated that all persons born or naturalized in the…
The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress January 31, 1865, and ratified December 6, 1865, states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The passing of this amendment freed slaves and made it illegal to have slaves, but the 13th Amendment did not give African-Americans the equal rights that they longed for. Consequently, slavery was a major setback for African-Americans leaving them deprived of education, which in the long run made it difficult for African-Americans to obtain any type of power in the United States. This shortfall of education hindered African-Americans from…
Within the span of a few decades from the late 19th to the early 20th century, the United States was transformed from a predominately rural agrarian society to an industrial economy centered in large metropolitan cities. Prior to the American industrial revolution, most Americans were reared in largely isolated agricultural households and small towns that were linked to the external world by horse drawn wagons. Except for towns that were connected to railroads or water borne shipping, isolation and the costs of overland transportation meant that many rural communities were largely self sufficient in food, clothing, and many other essentials of everyday life. This changed as many products became mass produced and shipped over the growing national network of railroads and highways. This was made possible or at least greatly enhanced by the millions of immigrants that were coming into America from Southern Europe who moved into cities and began working in factories. This huge influx of workers allowed employers to lower wages. Coupled with this great industrial and economic change was a large social change. Even though slavery had been abolished in 1865, there was nothing stopping segregation against the black population. They were forced to use separate facilities than whites and were kept from owning their own land. Some employers wouldn’t hire them so it was hard for them to find jobs. They were also treated poorly within their communities. There even laws enforced to keep them oppressed. The greatest example of this is the Jim Crow laws which remained in effect from 1876-1965. These laws were used and interpreted to oppress the black population in the South in legislation and custom. The African-American response to these laws and their establishment differed in idea and intensity. Some thought it appropriate to maintain some forms of segregation as long as they were treated equally, which was shown in legislature by the “Separate but equal” act that was passed.…