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The Fourteenth Amendment
By Cathy Pearl
The South had lost the Civil
War. Because of this, people
could no longer own slaves.
The Thirteenth Amendment
made it illegal in the country.
The South still thought of
other ways to try to fight
back.
They made rules that said
where and when blacks could
work and where they could
live. These new laws made it
very hard for blacks to gain many rights. These rules were called
Black Codes.
Many Southern states were against this change. However, they did
not have a choice but to agree to it. In order for a state to rejoin the
Union, it had to ratify the amendment. This made it very hard for any
of them to say no.
At the time, Congress did not have members in it from most of the
states that had seceded from the Union. This made it easy for
Congress to pass the amendment and propose it to the states. If there
had been people from the South in Congress, it probably would not
have been passed.
Still, not all states ratified the amendment in the 1800s. Kentucky
was the last state to agree to it. It waited until March 18, 1976, before
it ratified the change.
This changed the Supreme Court's ruling during the Dred Scott case.
At the time, the Court said that African Americans were not and could
never be citizens. The Court's ruling was overturned.
This amendment has been used by other groups over the years in
order to fight for their rights. Women wanted the same treatment that
men received in the country. This would be "equal protection." They
would earn the right to vote in 1920.
These rules made people in the North angry. They thought the South
was trying to get around the fact that they had lost the war. The people
in Congress knew that more new laws would have to be made to
protect blacks in the country.
In the 1960s, women and minorities would fight for "equal
protection" in the areas of jobs and housing. It wouldn't be until 1992
that an African American woman would be elected to the Senate. This
was over one hundred years after blacks became citizens in this
country.
Congress came up with the Fourteenth Amendment. This would give
citizenship to all people born in the United States. It also made it
illegal to treat people unfairly because of the color of their skin. It
gave everyone equal protection under the law.
This fight for equal rights for all in this country had just started.
African Americans and others in this country would not give up, no
matter how long it took them to earn the same rights as others.
The amendment became known as one of the Reconstruction
Amendments. Its goal was to help former slaves get more rights in
this country.
It was presented to the states on June 13, 1866. There were
thirty-seven states in the country. Twenty-eight of them would have to
agree to this.
The first state to ratify it was Connecticut. It did so on June 25, 1866.
A little over two years later, the twenty-eighth state ratified it. This
state was South Carolina. Ratification was completed on July 9, 1868.
Name
5. Whose ruling was overturned by the new amendment?
A. The Supreme Court
B. Congress
C. The president
The Fourteenth Amendment
6. When would women earn the right to vote?
Questions
1. What was the name for rules that were used to try to control
the lives of former slaves?
Was it right for Congress to pass this amendment without most
Southern states being included? Explain your answer.
2. What was the first state to ratify the amendment?
A. Connecticut
B. South Carolina
C. Kentucky
3. Why were many Southern states forced to ratify the
amendment?
A. They wanted to ratify it.
B. They had to ratify it to rejoin the Union.
C. Congress told them they had to.
4. When did Kentucky ratify the Fourteenth Amendment?
Name
Explain what you think "equal protection under the law" means.