Who Does The Constitution Protect?

The U.S. Constitution was historically interpreted as only applying to white men of property, with women, African Americans, and men without property excluded from the rights and liberties it outlined. The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868, was intended to extend liberties and rights to formerly enslaved people and grant citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. However, it failed to extend the Bill of Rights to the states and protect the rights of Black citizens. The Equal Protection Clause, part of the 14th Amendment, has been used as a basis for arguments to expand protections for Black Americans and challenge racial discrimination in court cases, but its effectiveness has been limited.

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The 14th Amendment

Despite the intentions behind the 14th Amendment, it ultimately failed to extend the Bill of Rights to the states and protect the rights of Black citizens. This failure led to a struggle by Black and White citizens to make the promises of the amendment a reality through petitions, court cases, legislation, and executive branch enforcement. While these efforts did not succeed during Reconstruction, they laid the groundwork for change in the 20th century.

In summary, the 14th Amendment was a significant step towards granting equal rights and liberties to formerly enslaved people and addressing racial discrimination. However, its implementation and enforcement fell short of fully realizing these goals, requiring continued efforts by citizens and lawmakers to uphold the promises of the amendment.

The Bill of Rights

The original U.S. Constitution, drafted in 1788, was intended to "secure the blessings of liberty" for the American people. However, this promise of liberty was primarily designed for white men of property. The Founding Fathers envisioned a civic arena where only propertied white men could participate, excluding women, African Americans, men without property, and non-white men of non-African descent. The Naturalization Act of 1790 further reinforced this exclusion by limiting citizenship to "free white persons".

Despite the progress made by the 14th Amendment, it did not fully extend the Bill of Rights to the states, and the struggle for equal rights for Black citizens continued. It is important to note that even before the 14th Amendment, there were those who advocated for equality before the law, regardless of race, often quoting the Declaration of Independence's assertion that "all men are created equal".

In conclusion, while the Constitution and the Bill of Rights may have been influenced by the beliefs and biases of the Founding Fathers, they are living documents that have evolved over time to include a broader interpretation of who is protected by these rights. The 14th Amendment and subsequent legal challenges have played a significant role in extending the Bill of Rights to all citizens, regardless of race or gender.

Citizenship

The original US Constitution, as conceived by the Founding Fathers, was intended to secure the rights and liberties of white men of property. The Declaration of Independence's assertion that "all men are created equal" was not applied to women, enslaved or free African Americans, men without property, or non-white men of non-African descent. The Naturalization Act of 1790 further stipulated that only "free white persons" could become citizens. This exclusionary definition of citizenship was challenged by abolitionists and anti-racism crusaders who argued for equality before the law, regardless of race.

The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified in 1868, was a significant step towards expanding the concept of citizenship. This amendment extended the liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people, effectively granting citizenship to those previously excluded. It also denied states the power to withhold equal protection of the laws from African Americans and authorized Congress to enforce these provisions through legislation.

Despite the progress made by the 14th Amendment, it did not explicitly extend the Bill of Rights to the states, and the rights of Black citizens remained vulnerable. The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Reconstruction Amendments, was intended to address this issue by ensuring that Black Americans were afforded equal rights under the law. However, the effectiveness of this clause was limited, as seen in cases like Plessy v. Ferguson, where the Court's interpretation of "separate but equal" facilities upheld racial segregation.

The struggle for equal citizenship rights continued with efforts to desegregate schools and universities. In cases like Sweatt v. Painter, the Court invalidated Texas's separate law school system for blacks and whites due to a lack of "substantial equality in educational opportunities." These legal challenges, along with citizen petitions, court cases, and legislative actions, laid the groundwork for the civil rights advancements of the 20th century. While the original Constitution may have been limited in its conception of citizenship, the nation's founding documents, like the Declaration of Independence, provided a basis for challenging exclusionary practices and expanding the rights and liberties to all.

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Equality under the law

The concept of equality under the law has been a part of American legal tradition since the Declaration of Independence, which stated that "all men are created equal". However, this equality has not always been realised in practice, and the history of the US Constitution and its amendments has been one of expanding the rights and protections it affords to different groups.

The Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution in 1788 intended for it to "secure the blessings of liberty" to the American people. However, they only envisioned this applying to white men of property. Women, African Americans, men without property, and non-white men of non-African descent were excluded from these rights and liberties. For example, the Naturalization Act of 1790 stipulated that only "free white persons" could become citizens.

The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868, was a significant step towards equality under the law. It extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people and granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States". It also nationalised the Bill of Rights, making it binding upon the states. However, it did not extend the Bill of Rights to the states, nor did it fully protect the rights of Black citizens.

The Equal Protection Clause, part of the 14th Amendment, has been used to challenge racial discrimination and segregation in education and state admissions processes. For example, in the case of Sweatt v. Texas, the Court invalidated the state's system of law schools, which educated Blacks and Whites at separate institutions, on the basis that the separate facilities were not equal and lacked "substantial equality in the educational opportunities". In Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Court restricted its prior holdings to situations where state action had a serious risk of causing specific injuries on account of race.

Despite these advancements, equality under the law remains an ongoing struggle. Citizens, lawmakers, and the executive branch continue to work towards ensuring that the rights and protections afforded by the Constitution are applied equally to all, regardless of race, gender, or property ownership.

School desegregation

The US Constitution's 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed after the Civil War to grant newly freed African Americans legal status, citizenship, and the right to vote. However, despite these amendments, segregation and discrimination against African Americans persisted in various aspects of society, including education.

In the late 1800s, many states of the former Confederacy adopted Jim Crow laws, which mandated the separation of whites and African Americans in schools and other public spaces. The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision in 1896 further emboldened segregationist states, upholding the “separate but equal” doctrine, which allowed state-sponsored segregation as long as the facilities provided to each race were deemed equal.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909 to fight racial discrimination and segregation. They focused on legal challenges to public-school segregation, and in 1954, their efforts led to the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, banning segregation in public education and stating that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This decision brought life to the 14th Amendment and inspired Southern Blacks to defy Jim Crow laws.

However, the implementation of desegregation in schools faced resistance and violence, and it was a slow process. In Brown II (1955), the Court delegated much of the responsibility for desegregation to local school authorities and lower courts, urging them to act “with all deliberate speed." By the mid-1960s, the passage of major civil rights and voting rights legislation gave the federal government the power to enforce school desegregation. Despite these efforts, school segregation persists in America today due to the segregation of many neighborhoods and the impact of economic-zoning laws on school attendance zones.

The Supreme Court has continued to address school desegregation in cases such as Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971), which emphasized the need for close scrutiny of racially imbalanced schools and the consideration of redrawing school boundaries and student transportation to achieve greater racial parity. While affirmative action programs were adopted by many districts to promote racially balanced schools, the Court's rulings in the 2000s and 2020s have limited the use of race as a factor in school admissions policies.

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