The 14th Amendment was a very important change to the Constitution. It granted citizenship to all people who were born in the United States. This included former slaves that were born in the United States. It also protected the rights of our citizens. These rights can’t be taken away without the due process of law. This was a big improvement for African-Americans.
There was a great deal of unhappiness with this proposed amendment in the South. Many southern states refused to ratify it as part of the terms of their reentry into the Union. This led to the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the South into five military districts. The Radical Republicans believed the South was unwilling to change. This led to the implementation of a harsh plan of Reconstruction for the ten southern states that didn’t ratify the 14th Amendment. The military would be in charge of rebuilding the South, something that the white southerners strongly opposed.
After this amendment was passed, southern states that hadn’t yet been admitted to the Union had to write new state constitutions that ratified the 14th Amendment. Eventually, the 15th Amendment was also passed. This amendment made it illegal to deny people the right to vote based on their race, their color, or if they had been a slave. This amendment gave African-American men the right to vote. The ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments were very important events in our country's history.
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