Civil Rights Amendments: Understanding The 1866 Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law for all persons. It was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments, which were adopted following the Civil War to guarantee the freedom of the formerly enslaved and grant them certain civil rights. The Fourteenth Amendment was a response to issues affecting freed slaves, and its enactment was bitterly contested, particularly by Southern states. It is considered one of the most consequential amendments and has been the basis for landmark Supreme Court decisions, such as Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia.

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The Fourteenth Amendment

A major provision of the Fourteenth Amendment was to grant citizenship to "All persons born or naturalized in the United States," thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people. It also included the statement that "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This provision extended the rights of due process and equal protection under the law to the state level.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first federal law in the United States to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was enacted on April 9, 1866, and then reenacted in 1870. The Act was passed by Congress in 1866 and vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, but Congress overrode his veto, marking the first time Congress legislated upon civil rights.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent born in or brought to the United States, in the wake of the American Civil War. It guaranteed citizenship without regard to race, colour, or prior enslavement, and equal benefits and access to the law, countering the discriminatory Black Codes passed by formerly Confederate states. The Act also granted all citizens the "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property", as well as the right to make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was closely related to the Second Freedmen's Bureau Act of 1866, and was a significant part of federal policy during Reconstruction. It was also influenced by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865, and was followed by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people. The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed in 1866, and ratified in 1868, and it addressed citizenship rights and equal protection under the law at all levels of government. It was one of the Reconstruction Amendments, along with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which were adopted between 1865 and 1870.

Reconstruction Amendments

The Reconstruction Amendments, also known as the Civil War Amendments, are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. They were adopted between 1865 and 1870, in the five years immediately following the American Civil War. These amendments were part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South, which aimed to transform the United States from a country that, as President Abraham Lincoln described, was "half slave and half free."

The 13th Amendment, proposed in 1864 and ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the U.S. Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865, after an unsuccessful vote and legislative maneuvering by the Lincoln administration. The amendment was swiftly ratified by all but three Union states (Delaware, New Jersey, and Kentucky) and several border and "reconstructed" Southern states. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed it as part of the Constitution.

The 14th Amendment, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law at all levels of government. It was passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, by the necessary number of states. The amendment was a response to issues affecting freed slaves following the Civil War and was bitterly contested, especially by Southern states, which were required to ratify it to regain representation in Congress. It was intended to nationalize the Bill of Rights and make it binding upon the states.

The 15th Amendment, proposed in 1869 and ratified in 1870, prohibits discrimination in voting rights based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments and was ratified on February 3, 1870. The narrow election of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 convinced Republicans that protecting the franchise of Black men was crucial for the party's future. The amendment banned franchise restrictions based on race, color, or prior servitude.

While these amendments were significant steps towards guaranteeing freedom and civil rights for formerly enslaved people, their promises were eroded by state laws and federal court decisions in the late 19th century. It was not until the mid-20th century, with Supreme Court decisions like Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that the full benefits of the Reconstruction Amendments were realized.

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Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865. It was then ratified by 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18, 1865.

The Thirteenth Amendment states that:

> "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."

Section 2 of the amendment further states that:

> "Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The Thirteenth Amendment was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. Prior to the Thirteenth Amendment, the United States Constitution did not use the words "slave" or "slavery" but included provisions regarding unfree persons, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise. This compromise counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population as "persons" for the purposes of allocating Congressional representation and taxes. The freeing of slaves through the Thirteenth Amendment rendered this clause moot.

The Thirteenth Amendment has rarely been cited in case law, but it has been used to strike down peonage and some race-based discrimination. It has also empowered Congress to make laws against modern forms of slavery, such as sex trafficking.

Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was the third and final amendment passed during the Reconstruction Era, a period following the American Civil War when the country grappled with implementing the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for a crime), which had been achieved through the Thirteenth Amendment.

The Fifteenth Amendment was proposed in 1869 and ratified in 1870. It prohibits the federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The Fifteenth Amendment was a response to the fact that, by 1869, voting rights across the country were restricted to white men, and it was designed to protect the voting rights of Black Americans.

The Fifteenth Amendment was bitterly contested, and its passage was followed by violent attempts to suppress Black political participation. The Ku Klux Klan, for example, targeted Black political meetings and intimidated Black voters at the polls. In the mid-1870s, new insurgent groups, such as the Red Shirts and the White League, violently suppressed Black voting on behalf of white supremacists.

Despite these challenges, Black Americans continued to be elected to local offices and Congress as late as 1894. However, starting around 1900, former Confederate states passed new laws that effectively disenfranchised Black citizens, such as poll taxes, residency rules, and literacy tests administered by white staff.

The Fifteenth Amendment was one of three Reconstruction Amendments, along with the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, which were passed between 1865 and 1870. These amendments were intended to guarantee the freedom of formerly enslaved people, grant them certain civil rights, and protect them and all citizens of the United States from discrimination.

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