Women used the first section of the amendment to support the full citizenship rights of women. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, women's suffrage supporters tried to cast ballots. In this sense, women began to use the Fourteenth Amendment to their advantage by claiming that they deserved voting rights (Archives.gov.) The Supreme Court in the 1875 case, "Minor v. Happersett," found that women born or naturalized in the United States were American citizens. In this case, the Supreme Court found that voting was not one of the "privileges and immunities of citizenship;" however, there was significant importance of the Fourteenth Amendment in the women's movement, whose leaders continued to use it as a platform and justification for their right for equal protection and voting (Supreme Court Drama: Cases That Changed America, 2001.)
A New Birth of Universal Freedom: The Fourteenth Amendment, 1868
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The Expansion of Freedom For Women?; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony; Minor v. Happersett
"We ask justice, we ask that all civil and political rights that belong to the citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever"-Susan B. Anthony, 1876
Equal Protection; Blacks Codes
The Bill of Rights set constitutional restrictions against the government, meaning that the federal government had to abide by a certain standard of laws. Before the Civil War, the Bill of Rights was an important piece of the Constitution, but states still had the ability to have their own levels of control within their state. The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states, "nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," guaranteed equality in proceedings based on security of persons under law, not under general laws like race, sex or religion. It marked a large step in freedom for the people by applying more constitutional restrictions to the states than they had received before the Civil War (Foner, A-10, 2012.)
After the Thirteenth Amendment was passed in 1865, which abolished slavery, the southern states began to restrict and regulate the lives of former slaves with "Black Codes." Conditions under the Codes resembled slavery, in which blacks were stripped of their basic rights and were not entitled to the same freedom as their white counterparts. Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment in response, and it guaranteed the rights of blacks under citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment was a huge step for blacks because it finally guaranteed them equal protection under the law. It prevented discriminatory state laws targeted at blacks such as the Black Codes ("Black Codes," 2013.)
A sample list of Black Codes (University of Miami, 2013) |
- "The Southern "Black Codes" of 1865-66." Southern Black Codes. N.p., 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
- "U.S. GOVERNMENT Introduction to the U.S. System Guiding Principles Rights of the People: Individual Freedoms and the Bill of Rights." U.S. GOVERNMENT Introduction to the U.S. System Guiding Principles Rights of the People: Individual Freedoms and the Bill of Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
- "The Black Code in Georgia--Colonial Period To1900." The Black Code in Georgia--Colonial Period To1900. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
- Foner, Eric. "Appendix, A-10." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. A-10. Print.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Due Process Clause; "Scottsboro Boys" Case (1931)
The due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment (Picture Source: Texas Politics)
|
Citizenship as The Tenet of Freedom
One of the most contested questions that came out of Reconstruction was, “Who is a rightful citizen of the United States, and what rights should that citizen be entitled to enjoy?” Before the Civil War, whites were able to separate themselves from the institution of slavery by their citizenship, and the lack thereof for blacks. The Fourteenth Amendment of 1868, for the first time in American History, resolved pre-Civil War disagreements over citizenship and established a definition of individual equality that all citizens are entitled to. It states, “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. (Foner, A-10, 2012)” The Fourteenth Amendment wrote into the Constitution that equality before the law, regardless of race, is a fundamental right of American citizens. Prior to the Civil War, African Americans could not escape bondage and become free. The Fourteenth Amendment acknowledged for the first time, the importance of citizenship in the concept of freedom. Once all people became entitled to that right, which is explicitly stated in the constitution, blacks took a step towards a shared equality with other citizens of the nation (Patrick, 1967.)
Historians Eric Foner & Linda Kerber on birthright citizenship
The Fourteenth Amendment was also not a principle that had its roots in the Constitution. Rather, it was a very specific part of the Reconstruction process and fundamentally rewrote American liberty. Unlike any of the other amendments passed before it, the Fourteenth Amendment created a national standard of citizenship that dealt with all persons and not just whites who could be citizens. In the Dred Scott Decision of 1847 no black person, whether they were free or enslaved, could a become citizen. Whereas citizenship was just for white people before the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment created a new universal guideline for citizenship (Foner, 2012.)
In the ruling of the Dred Scott decision of 1847, all blacks were denied citizenship. This changed with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, which opened the door to a newfound freedom for blacks that eventually led to more personal liberties (Foner, 2012.) |
- Patrick, Rembert W. "Congressional Reconstruction." The Reconstruction of the Nation. New York: Oxford UP, 1967. 99-106. Print.
- Foner, Eric. "Appendix, A-10." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. A-10. Print.
- Foner, Eric. "A House Divided." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 519-20. Print.
- "Eric Foner & Linda Kerber on Birthright Citizenship at OAH in Milwaukee." YouTube. YouTube, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
- "Primary Documents in American History." Dred Scott v. Sandford: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)