Jonah Patel
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, was intended to fulfill the promise of equality for African Americans. It extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. This amendment revoked the Black Codes, declaring that states could not pass laws denying citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms. It also amended the 3/5ths Clause, stating that population counts would be based on the whole number of persons in a state, ensuring that all people would be counted equally. Despite the 14th Amendment's intentions, it ultimately failed to protect the rights of Black citizens, and legal challenges undermined its power.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| The Constitution's biggest flaw | Protecting the institution of slavery |
| Article 1, Section 9 | Prohibits Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808 |
| Article 5 | Prohibits Article 1, Section 9 from being amended |
| Article 1, Section 2 | For representation in Congress, enslaved black people in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state |
| Article 4, Section 2 | Contains the "fugitive slave clause," which required that an escaped slave be returned to their owner |
| 14th Amendment | Extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people |
| 14th Amendment | Revoked the Black Codes by declaring that states could not pass laws that denied citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms |
| 14th Amendment | Established the principle of birthright citizenship, meaning a person born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen |
| 15th Amendment | Banned voting restrictions based on race |
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What You'll Learn
The 14th Amendment
Additionally, the 14th Amendment included provisions related to voting and representation in Congress. It amended the 3/5ths clause in the Constitution, stating that population counts would be based on the "whole number of persons" in a state, ensuring that all people were counted equally. It also protected the right to vote for all male citizens aged 21 and older, although it would take the 15th Amendment (ratified in 1870) to ban voting restrictions based on race.
Despite the promises of equality and protection for African Americans in the 14th Amendment, it faced resistance and challenges. By 1875, when the Civil Rights Act was passed, the amendment was already under attack by white supremacists opposed to Black equality. Legal challenges over the next two decades undermined the amendment's power to protect the constitutional rights of African Americans, leading to the reestablishment of states' rights, racial segregation, and the relegation of Black people to second-class citizenship.
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The Three-Fifths Compromise
The compromise counted three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives, effectively giving the Southern states more power in the House relative to the North. This compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution.
The three-fifths ratio was proposed by James Madison and was first proposed as an amendment to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783. This amendment was not passed, falling two states short of the unanimous approval required. The compromise was proposed again during the 1787 Constitutional Convention by delegate James Wilson and seconded by Charles Pinckney.
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Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, is Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. It states that a "Person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who escapes to another state must be returned to their master in the state from which they fled. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and remained in effect until the abolition of slavery under the Thirteenth Amendment.
The Fugitive Slave Clause gave enslavers a constitutional right to recover their enslaved property from another state. This right was based on the understanding that under chattel slavery, enslaved people were considered the property of their enslavers. The clause did not use the words "slave" or "slavery", which has led to debate among modern legal scholars about whether it conferred constitutional legitimacy on slavery. Some argue that the vague wording was a political compromise, while others contend that it entrenched slaveholder power.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was the basis for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which gave slaveholders the right to capture their enslaved persons who had run away. The enforcement provisions of this Act were strengthened in 1850, leading to increased resistance to its enforcement in Northern states. Several Northern states enacted "personal liberty laws" to protect free Black residents from kidnapping and provide procedural safeguards for accused fugitives. This resistance further polarised public opinion and highlighted the contradictions between free and slave states in the United States.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was rendered mostly irrelevant by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery except as punishment for criminal acts. However, it has been noted that people can still be held to service or labour under limited circumstances, even after the abolition of slavery.
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Birthright citizenship
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed in 1866, was intended to fulfill the promise of equality for African Americans. It revoked the Black Codes, declaring that states could not pass laws that denied citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms. The amendment also included provisions relating to voting and representation in Congress, amending the 3/5ths clause in the Constitution to state that population counts would be based on the "whole number of persons" in a state.
The citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment established the principle of birthright citizenship, which is a legal principle under which citizenship is automatically granted to individuals upon birth. Birthright citizenship has two forms: ancestry-based citizenship and birthplace-based citizenship. The latter, formally referred to as jus soli, grants citizenship based on the place of birth. The 14th Amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
The principle of birthright citizenship was confirmed by the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which clarified that children born in the US to immigrant parents are citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status. However, this principle did not apply to Native Americans, who were not legally declared US citizens until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Despite the 14th Amendment, the power to protect the constitutional rights of African Americans was undermined by legal challenges, allowing racial segregation and relegating Black people to second-class citizenship. In recent times, there have been attempts to restrict birthright citizenship for babies of undocumented immigrants and people with temporary status in the US, with President Donald Trump issuing an executive order on his first day in office aimed at ending this practice. The Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Trump v. CASA, decided in 2025, expanded the president's power, but as of July 1, 2025, nothing has changed regarding birthright citizenship.
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Voting rights
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a significant milestone in the struggle for Black voting rights in the United States, but the fight for equal voting rights began much earlier and continues to this day.
The Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, was a crucial step towards securing voting rights for African Americans. This amendment explicitly prohibited the federal government and each state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It marked a significant shift, as prior to this, only white men had been allowed to vote.
The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment was a direct response to the debates during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era that followed, where the rights of millions of formerly enslaved African Americans were at the forefront. The amendment ensured that Black males, having been freed by the Thirteenth Amendment and granted citizenship by the Fourteenth, could now exercise their right to vote.
Ongoing Voting Disenfranchisement
Despite the protections offered by the Fifteenth Amendment, African Americans continued to face significant barriers to voting due to discriminatory state laws and practices. Southern states, in particular, employed various tactics to disenfranchise Black voters, including literacy tests, poll taxes, and the infamous "grandfather clauses," which restricted voting rights to those whose male ancestors had been allowed to vote before the amendment.
The Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement of the twentieth century sought to address these ongoing injustices and secure full voting rights for all Black citizens. Organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and activists like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. played pivotal roles in advocating for voting rights.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
In 1965, after years of intimidation, violence, and advocacy, the Voting Rights Act was passed. This federal legislation ensured that no government, federal, state, or local, could impede people from voting based on their race or ethnicity. It abolished literacy tests and poll taxes, and authorized federal supervision of voter registration to prevent discriminatory practices.
Continuing Challenges
While the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a significant victory, the struggle for voting rights did not end there. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the Act, and ongoing challenges such as redistricting, poll location changes, and closures continue to threaten voting access for Black Americans.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, introduced in Congress in 2019, is a recent effort to strengthen voting rights and address these contemporary challenges. The fight for equal voting rights remains an ongoing battle, with activists and legislators working to protect and expand access to the ballot for all citizens, regardless of race.
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Frequently asked questions
The 14th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868. It extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people.
The 14th Amendment revoked the Black Codes and declared that states could not pass laws that denied citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms. It also established the principle of birthright citizenship, which meant that a person born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen.
The Black Codes were a set of laws passed by southern states that denied equal citizenship status to free Black people.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise struck during the 1787 Constitutional Convention to resolve the issue of whether slaves would be counted as part of the population or considered property. It counted three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives.
