citizens, and granted all these citizens the "equal protection of the laws." (History Channel) Even after the ratification was submitted African Americans still felt as if they were not treated equally. “In the decades after its adoption, the equal protection clause was cited by a number of African American activists who argued that racial segregation denied them the equal protection of law.” (History Channel) Even after the ratification many states still denied these citizens the right to vote which later was brought upon in the 15th amendment. () After the ratification was over with Congress then moved on to the next amendment even though the 14th amendment is still in dispute by many until this day. After Abraham Lincoln was assinated in 1865 Andrew Johnson was appointed as president of the United States. “Andrew Johnson was the President of the United States during the ratification of the 14th Amendment; he assumed the roles of the Presidency as a result of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.” () Andrew Johnson was not in favor of what the 14th amendement represented in giving African Americans their equal rights. “Johnson was in favor of leaving the future of black people in the hands of white Southerners.” () Andrew Johnson didn’t have a problem with voicing his opinion and how he felt about the Reconstruction Act, especially in a letter to his friend William Cullen Bryant. “The president grew much excited and expressed the most bitter hatred of the measure in all its parts, declaring that it was nothing but anarchy and chaos, that the people of the South, poor, quiet, unoffending, harmless, were to be trodden under foot "to protect niggers," that the States were already in the Union, that in no part of the country were life and property so safe as in the Southern States.” () The president vetoed many bills but they were somehow always overturned by