A JOG DOWN "AMENDMENT MEMORY LANE" ....... Learn Our History Today: On July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted, granting citizenship and protecting the liberties of former slaves. The 14th Amendment has three clauses: the Citizenship Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause. The Citizenship Clause overruled the previous Dred Scott vs. Sandford Supreme Court ruling which stated that blacks could not be citizens of the United States. The Second Clause, the Due Process Clause, stated that state and local governments could not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without certain measures being taken to ensure fairness. The final clause, the Equal Protection Clause, stated that each state is required to give equal protection under the law to all people living under its jurisdiction, black or white. The 14th Amendment was met with massive amounts of opposition in the south, which merely three years after America’s bloody Civil War, was in the midst of reconstruction. Reconstruction dealt with how the south should be treated after the war and how they should be re-assimilated into the Union. Southern states desperately wished to regain representation in congress and be readmitted into the Union, if only to combat bills aimed at imposing harsh regulations on the former rebel states. However, in order to gain representation, the southern states were forced to ratify the 14th Amendment which had been received with so much uproar across the south.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 12:41:41 +0000