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The Courts, the
Constitution, and
the Bill of Rights:
Equal Protection
© 2003 Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles, 2002.
All rights reserved.
In 1776, the American colonists decided to declare
their independence from England.
Thomas Jefferson, a young lawyer
from Virginia, was asked to write a
Declaration of Independence to
inform the English and other nations
about this decision.
In the Declaration, Jefferson wrote...
We hold these truths
to be self-evident…
that all men are
created equal...
But in spite of Jefferson’s words, not all
Americans were equal.
In fact, about 1/5 of all
the people in America
were slaves.
The question of slavery
would haunt America
throughout its history.
After the Revolutionary War was won, the founders gathered
to draft a Constitution to form a new government.
Here, questions about slavery came up and arguments broke out..
It became clear that the Southern states would never join
the new United States of America if slavery were outlawed
by the Constitution.
Both sides made
compromises about
slavery to try to unite
the states. The issue
of slavery was finally
left open...
an issue that future
generations would
have to deal with.
Throughout the early 1800s
people in the Northern states
voiced their beliefs that
slavery should be abolished.
They were called abolitionists.
The abolitionist movement
grew.
Every time a new state
wanted to join the union,
big arguments broke out
about whether the state
should be a free or slave
state.
Things were getting worse
between the Northern and
Southern states.
The Southern states pressured the federal government to
pass stronger laws for the capture of runaway slaves.
In 1857 the Supreme Court decided a case of
a runaway slave named Dred Scott.
Dred Scott was suing for his
freedom, but the court held that
the Constitution protected
slavery and that African
Americans were not citizens
protected by the Constitution.
This decision made the abolitionists very angry.
It left no room for compromise.
The nation was pushed closer to civil war.
Then, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln
was elected President...
...by the Northern
states.
Electoral Map of 1860. Lincoln carried red states.
This caused most of the Southern states to leave the Union.
By April, 1861, war broke out among the
Northern and Southern states.
In 1863, President Lincoln
issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, which freed the
slaves in the rebel states.
After four bloody years of civil war,
the South was defeated.
After the Civil War ended, Congress passes three new
Amendments to the Constitution.
13th Amendment (1865)
“Slavery…shall not exist
within the United States
or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.”
14th Amendment
Sometimes called the
“Civil War Amendments.”
(1868)
All people born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens.
All citizens must be treated equally under the law.
Due process of law for all.
15th Amendment (1870)
Right to vote cannot be denied based on “race,
color, or previous…servitude.”
And 50 years later another equal protection
Amendment was added...
19th Amendment
(1920)
Women’s right
to vote.
Federal troops stayed in the South until 1877
and made sure these new laws were enforced.
But after that,
unfortunately, new
laws were passed in
the South that
denied many of the
rights that the former
slaves had won, like
the right to vote.
These laws became known as “Jim Crow Laws.”
In 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson came before the
Supreme Court challenging the Jim Crow laws.
Homer Plessy had been convicted of sitting in the “white”
section of a train. The Supreme Court ruled that Plessy’s
conviction would stand.
The court held that it was not a violation
of the Constitution to have separate
facilities for different races as long as the
facilities were equal.
This became known as the
“separate but equal” rule.
It was not until 1954 that the Supreme Court
overturned the separate but equal doctrine in
one of its most famous cases...
Brown v. Board of Education
The court’s ruling on this case made it
illegal to segregate public schools.
Later, laws passed by Congress ended...
job discrimination,
segregated public facilities,
and ensured
voting rights for
all citizens.
The struggle for equality has been an important
part of America’s history.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the
Constitution were created to right the wrongs of slavery.
But it is important to remember that these
amendments apply to all citizens.
They ensure equal protection of the law for
people of all racial, ethnic, and religious groups.
Today, there are still struggles for equal
protection. It is up to the courts to uphold the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights as they hear
cases dealing with discrimination.
The Courts, the Constitution, and
the Bill of Rights: Equal Protection
Designed by Marshall Croddy
Written by Keri Doggett
Graphic Design and Production by Keri Doggett
Special thanks to John Kronstadt, member of CRF
Board of Directors, for inspiration and input.
© 2003 Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles, 2002.
All rights reserved..