Social Equality In The 14th Amendment

The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and

For the greater part of the nineteenth century, black people were slaves for white men. The Fourteenth Amendment was placed into effect to protect the rights of the black community after emancipation. It stated that, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” would be supported under the doctrine. However, this article failed to uphold the rights of the newly freed slaves. The blacks, ridiculed and scorned by the public, were greatly suppressed by the white backlash. The states put into effect laws that would suppress the blacks even further, even though they were protected under the Amendment. The states made stipulations on rights the African Americans were granted, like the right to own land, vote, and even hold certain jobs. Voting was a major controversy for the newly freed slaves, they wanted the chance to be heard through politics. Nevertheless, they were still denied the simple right to vote in many of the states if they could not meet the prerequisites for reading or could not pay a voting tax. They made contracts for them to work for white men, just as if they were slaves and nothing changed. Black people were still waiting for their salvation under this new piece of legislation, but were unable to grasp it through the government. African Americans stood for their newly given rights under the Constitution and were denied by the people who put

According to the thirteenth amendment, “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 purpose of the thirteenth amendment was to end slavery or any form of involuntary servitude everywhere among the United States. There was new hope for African Americans throughout the country but unfortunately their freedom had a limit and coincidentally, President Lincoln was assassinated shortly after. Jim Crow laws were established among the states and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern states of the United States up until 1965. This is how white southerners

While it might at first seem superfluous, one of the most important parts of the Fourteenth Amendment was that it provided a definition of who was a citizen of the United States. However, in the infamous Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Taney had held that, “A free negro of the African race… is not a ‘citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States,” and thus, only whites were entitled to constitutional rights. The

Imagine living in a world where everyone was considered equal. Imagine living in a world where people were considerate of others. Imagine living in a world where everyone had the same rights and privileges. The Framers took a step at achieving this world with the passage of the 14th amendment. The intent of the 14th amendment was to prevent state governments from denying African Americans in the U.S. from their citizenship. At the time Africans were unable to attain citizenship because of their skin color. The Framer’s objective in formulating the 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to everyone born in the U.S., regardless of skin color. The 14th amendment expanded the protection of civil rights to all citizens in America.

The success and the approval by the necessary three-quarters of U.S states, the 14th Amendment guaranteed to the newly freed slaves protection and citizenship along with all its privileges. This amendment resolved any pre-Civil War concerns of the African American community’s citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside” (Primary Documents of American History, 2011). This amendment also reinsured that they had the equal rights and privileges of the rest of the citizens, and granted all these citizens the “equal protection of the laws” (Primary Documents of American History, 2011).

The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 and the amendment was put in place to protect former slaves and their rights in life. The most important part of the amendment reads, “No state shall ‘deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person… the equal protection of the laws.’” This simple statement has one of the most profound and incredible parts of the United States today. The equal protection of the laws show that there must be equal treatment for all citizens regardless of race, class, or gender. Although there has been many racial events happening after this amendment was passed this clause still stands to today and has helped shape the United States for the better. Having this clause in the Fourteenth Amendment protects the ‘little guy’ and makes sure that everyone has the same ability to do whatever everyone else is doing.

Even with the 14th amendment not all people were treated equally. As shown in document one on paper and de jure everyone was equal, however it was evident in many things that white males had advantages de facto and in society. For example, people may be denied jobs and housing and other services

The 13th Amendment says “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.” (Doc C) Although many years later African Americans still were not being treated like people, abolishing slavery was a big step to the stop of harsh treatment toward African Americans. The citizenship, and the right to vote are granted to African Americans by the 14, and 15 Amendments. The passing of these Amendments insured that the African Americans are people.

The fourteenth amendment is also known as equal protection clause. Under the fourteenth amendment, the U.S. Constitution prohibits the states from denying a person that lives in the state the equal rights of the law (LII, 2017). The fourteenth amendment applies to education, especially those that are English language learners (ELL), this means that these students cannot be denied the same rights as non-English language learners. In the Supreme Court case of Lau v Nichols in 1974, this case involved a Chinese American student that attended the San Francisco Unified School District, this student was placed into a general education classroom despite the lack of being proficient in English (Wright, 2010). The school in which this student attended was found in violation, the school was giving ELL students the same material as all other students who speak proficient English and expected the Chinese American student to be able to comprehend the information that is being taught. School districts need to provide the same material, but in a modified form where the student’s will be able to access the information to learn it in the same manner as those non-English language learners.

But even though the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States, whites still continued to treat blacks unfairly! Senate.gov states that the struggle to fully achieve equality would continue into the twentieth century. Let’s dig a little deeper into life after the Civil War! So the 14th amendment gave the right for blacks to vote and gave them protection under the law!

Numerous grand triumphs had been won for blacks especially with the section of the thirteenth and fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution—"flexibility" was no longer only a fantasy after over 250 years of pitiless, sub-human treatment persisted under subjection arrived at an end when the 13th Amendment abrogated bondage. Furthermore, the fourteenth Amendment now promised them level with insurance and due process under the law. However the harm delivered by the Plessy versus Ferguson case which sanctioned the "different however equivalent" teaching, added fuel to an officially seething flame of isolation, exacerbating an awful circumstance just at this point guaranteeing and supporting the continuation of the racial domination and dark inadequacy

It is important to have equal protection of the law because that ensures that everyone will be treated the same. This means that one person can’t have better opportunities than another because of their race. This specific topic was very controversial in 1868. Equal protection o the law is basically what Martin Luther King was fighting for. He wanted everyone no matter what your race was, to be treated equally. African Americans at the time were treated brutally by whites and didn’t get the same treatment. Whites had many advantages and still do to this day, though most people like to believe that racism doesn’t exist.

Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected

Let's take a step back and look at the “Civil Rights act of 1875” which made it criminal to deny any individual of any race or color equal treatment(The Civil Rights Act of 1875). This act was a huge step for African Americans in becoming equal. Louisiana put in place a law that required separate rail cars for those of color and whites. Controversy then struck when Homer Adolph Plessy sat in the white only section of the rail car, when asked he then refuse to move to the car for blacks and was arrested Despite the fact that he half white and half black which gave him equal opportunity for either railcar. In this case which became known as the Plessy versus Ferguson case they ruled that the state law is within constitutional boundaries and did not violate the equality of the citizen. If Plessy was treated equally why was he not allowed to sit next to a white american if they were constitutionally equal. The hope that emerged from the civil rights act was then taken away. Congress shut down the Civil rights act claiming that the fourteenth amendment did not give congress any jurisdiction to prevent discrimination from private peoples. Keep in mind that the fourteenth amendment gave U.S. citizenship to any natural born or naturalized citizen, including free slaves (14th Amendment). Once congress shut down the