.... Explain the significance of the 14th Amendment to American Civil Rights.? The significance of the 14th Amendment to American Civil Rights was, that it gave slaves, African Americans rights that were previously denied to them as “citizens” of the United States. States especially southern states had different laws regarding slaves verses white residence of their state. The 14th Amendment, further prohibited states from having “equal but separate” segregation laws that were so prevalent in the southern states. There were separate restaurants, bathrooms, and schools for people of color. In terms of Civil Rights, the fourteenth amendment guaranteed equal access to hotels, restaurants, and other public accommodations. This amendment, was basically...
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...Bill of Rights and Amendments Salvatore Coco HIS/301 AUGUST 15, 2013 Christina Winn Bill of Rights and Amendments Although the Constitution was written primarily to define and represent the ideals and dreams of men for freedom of life; liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there were many imperfections because of the compromises required to get the document ratified by the states involved. Amendments to the Constitution were added to correct these deficiencies, including the Bill of Rights and the first 10 amendments. However, the Bill of Rights still did not adequately address the issues of slaves. Amendments 13, 14, and 15 were added in an attempt to fulfill the gaps left by the original 10. These amendments were also a precursor to future amendments addressing civil right issues during the Civil Rights movement. How and Why Amendments are added to the Constitution The Constitution was approved in 1788, including Article V stating how amendments would be added. Amendments were needed either as an improvement, a correction, or an addition. There are two ways to pass an amendment although only one has ever been used. The first method takes two-thirds of the house and Senate and three-fourths of the states to have a proposed amendment ratified. The second method, although never used requires a Constitutional Convention to be called by two-thirds of the House...
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...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...
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...The Supreme Court V. The 14th Amendment I. Introduction A. The Supreme court presided over three cases in the span of ten years that grossly affected the country. B. The 1873 ruling of the Slaughter House Cases, the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, and the 1896 case of Plessy V. Ferguson. II. Body A. The 1873 ruling of the Slaughter House Cases. 1. A Louisiana law of 1869 created a state corporation for the slaughtering of livestock. The corporation was given exclusive power to slaughter livestock, and all other private slaughterhouses were required to close. Independent butchers could use the corporation’s facilities for a charge, but could not conduct independent operations. 2. The butchers not included in the monopoly claimed that the law deprived them of their right to "exercise their trade" and challenged it under the 13th and 14th amendments. The highest state court sustained the law. 3. The states have the proper police power to limit slaughter house operations for the health and safety of their residents. The meaning of the 13th and 14th amendments must be derived from the historical context of the problems they were designed to remedy, namely African slavery. The Congress, after the end of the Civil War, sought to strengthen the freedom of the former slaves by passing these amendments. 4. Specifically, they only were meant to guarantee federal privileges, not state privileges, whatever they may be. The "privileges and immunities" clause did not...
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...As all the other Amendments, the 14th Amendments was made to change how the law and the way the African Americans were treated. Its one of the longest written Amendment, The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African American slaves who were emancipated after the American Civil War. This reconstruction Amendment has forbidden the states from denying any person within the state’s jurisdiction equal protection under the law and forbidding the states from denying any person of “ life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” . As you see from time to time in the newspapers, news channels, books, TV shows, and/or movies today the 14th Amendment plays a very...
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...Over the course of American History, there have been a lot of events that shaped America to the way that it is today. However, one of the most famous events that had happened was the Reconstruction Amendments, particularly the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment was one of three Amendments of the Reconstruction, along with the 14th Amendment, which was focused on citizenship and passed in 1868, and the 15th Amendment, which was focused on voting for African-Americans, and passed in 1870. The premises of the 13th Amendment was to abolish slavery. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery as a legal institution. But at first, the 13th Amendment had a different purpose. It was to guarantee the legality and perpetuity of slavery in the slave states, rather than to end it. This caused complicated sectional politics of the antebellum period, and a futile effort to preclude Civil War. Under presidential war powers, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,...
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...Bill of Rights and Amendments Tahitia G. Brown HIS/301 May 17, 2012 Abeba Salter-Woods Bill of Rights and Amendments The original United States Constitution was ratified in 1787. However the current document by which all laws are governed was confirmed and made into law on September 17th of 1789. This document enabled the people some control over government, which was created not only for them by also by the said people. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in a manner, that the text could evolve and mature just as the persons for which it was written. This paper will detail how and why amendments become a part of the constitution, problems which have arisen due to the original document motivating the adoption of the Bill of Rights and their effects. Further listing other issues arising, due to changes in society which have led to amendments thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, and their affects (University of Phoenix, 2010). Amendments In Article V of the Constitution an amendment process was adopted to ensure that as changes in society occur, so should the document by which all inalienable rights and freedoms are explained in depth. The aforementioned article stipulates the ways in which the Constitution may be amended. The first is by a two-thirds vote from both the House and Representatives and the Senate and 38 of the 50 states must ratify the proposed amendment, which has been the only manner in which all...
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...How far did US presidents hinder rather than help the development of African Civil rights in the period from 1865-12? It can be said that US presidents significantly hindered rather than helped the development of African Civil Rights in the period from 1965-1912 because the Presidents after Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant did not sustain the 14th Amendment which said that African Americans were equal citizens with equal rights and the 15th Amendment stated the right to vote was not to be denied on the account of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude and loopholes allowed the southern state governments not to enforce the amendments, in which the Amendments were flawed in the fact that the southern states where able to find these loopholes and to exploit these loop holes so that the African Americans did not receive their Civil rights. A major loophole was in the 15th amendment as it did not forbid states to introduce literacy, property and educational tests for would be voters and did not guarantee all men the right to vote and did not outlaw voting discrimination on the grounds of gender and property ownership so southern states devised complex rules and imposed additional voting requirements. Therefore this enabled the southern governments to introduce black codes which included grandfather clauses, poll tax and literacy tests which denied the African Americans of their civil rights such as blacks where banned from schools and not allowed to vote and had no...
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...The 14th amendment was proposed July 28th, 1868. The amendment gives citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the U.S. This included former slaves even if they had just been freed after the civil war. The law was proposed because all Americans were not receiving the same rights based on religion, ethnicity, and race. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April of 1965. He was the one that issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation saying that any slaves could be free. The 14th amendment was in a way similar saying that all should be free to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The law guaranteed everyone equal rights. African Americans had a very strong opinion towards this law because they weren’t usually treated equally to all the other Americans. When the states were approving the law most of the Southern States resisted. But they had to take consideration of the 13th amendment, that protected the African Americans rights so the law passed. The first...
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...Bill of Rights and Amendments Paper Bill of Rights and Amendments Paper On September 17th, 1789 The United States Constitution was ratified and made law. The founders of United States Constitution had the foresight to give the constitution a way to grow and adapt with America’s needs, by including an amendment process to change or add to the rights of Americans. The amendment process has allowed America to continue growth and prosperity throughout the years and become one of the most powerful nations in the world. The amendment process will be covered in this paper along with the. The author of this paper will also look at later amendments to the constitution with an emphasis on amendments 13, 14 and 15 and the effects they had on America culture and society. The Purpose of Amendments The constitution was created with an amendment process in Article V to allow the document to adapt to changes in American society. According to article V of the Constitution an amendment can be passed by either a two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a convention where two-thirds of the legislatures meet over an amendment. After the Amendment is approved in the convention process it must then be ratified by 75% of the state legislatures (UMKC School of Law, 2013). Without the Amendment process the United States would have been bound by the same rules that applied back in the late 1700’s. The Amendment process has made it possible for the Constitution to change...
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...The Civil Rights Amendment are very important to the U.S citizens.The three main goals were to give citizenship,equal rights, and to abolish slavery.The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments in the Constitution which are civil and protection to the former slaves. It has made African American lives better. The emancipation proclamation gave a moral Cause to the Civil War. Lincoln worried that it would not be relevant post-Civil War. Republicans wanted to gain power in the south post-Civil War. Natural republicans needed to punish old Confederate leaders. The 13th amendment said neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been convicted shell exist within the united states or any place subject to their jurisdiction....
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...The 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments have all greatly affected and changed the lives of many Americans for different reasons. Each of these amendments has to due with giving people equal rights no matter what race or gender that they may be. These are all tremendous milestones in American history. First, the 13th amendment was passed in 1865 to end slavery. African Americans were no longer allowed to be considered as property. Instead, they became viewed as real people, and slavery was banned unless it was used as a form of punishment This amendment was passed because before and during the civil war, most northern citizens strongly stood against slavery. They thought it was unjust to make people work for long hours and to be treated unfairly. This amendment clearly and effectively signified that no American citizen could own slaves....
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...As grand as the the Constitution of the United States, the words composed in the 14th Amendment “nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” has completely transformed our nation since the amendment was passed in 1868. The amendment came in response to the circumstances of former slaves following the Civil War. It has been the basis of many landmark cases such as Roe v. Wade, Bush v. Gore, and Obergell v. Hodges. However, I want to discuss how the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution was violated by SB 1070. Without a doubt SB 1070 has become a major controversy between both the supporting side and opposing side of the law, nevertheless, the 14th Amendment shall still be upheld to this day as it protects...
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...changed it’s called and amendment. Among the amendments are the bill of rights and the reconstruction amendments. In this paper I will discuss how and why amendments become part of the constitution, what were some problems with the original document that motivated the adoption of the bill of rights, the effects of the bill of rights and the reconstruction amendments and their effects. How and why do amendments become part of the constitution? When the constitution was written, the Framers knew that the constitution would and could be amended. Article V of the constitution tells how an amendment can become a part of the constitution. It takes two steps to add an amendment to the constitution. The first step is the proposal. An amendment can be proposed by either two-thirds vote in congress, which includes both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The second step is ratification; the amendment has to be ratified by wither three-fourths of the state legislatures or by state conventions in three-fourths of the states. An amendment can only be ratified after two-thirds of the House and Senate approve of the proposal and send it to the states for a vote and then three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed amendment. Congress has set a term of seven years for ratification. The second way would require a constitutional convention to be called by two-thirds of the legislatures of the states. The convention can then propose as many amendments as it sees fit. Those...
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...Bill of Rights and Amendments Bill of Rights and Amendments The United States Constitution was recognized to Americans as a vague statement in clarifying the privileges and the rights of individuals and centralizing the power within the government itself. With the passing of the Bill of Rights and the first ten amendments, it grants the people to what is said to be their “natural rights” following additional rights that have significantly changed our society. Amendments and Constitution According to the Constitution, an amendment may be proposed and be presented, where it is put to a two thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The original article is then forwarded for processing and publication to NARA's Office of the Federal Register (OFR) (U.S. Constitution, 2011). The OFR maintains the document until it is either adopted or a failed amendment, then it is transferred for protection to the National Archives. Soon after a proposed amendment is ratified by three-fourths of the states, it becomes a part of the Constitution. (U.S. Constitution, 2011) Not all proposed amendments are accepted and must meet certain constitutional purpose to be passed, for example: after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and stating that “all men are created equal” the institutionalized system of servitude was a reason to pass to what is now the 13th Amendment of the Constitution and the abolition of slavery. This amendment provided that neither...
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