On July 9, 1868, Louisiana and South Carolina voted to ratify the 14th Amendment, after they had rejected it a year earlier. The 14th Amendment is one of the most powerful and significant parts of the Constitution.
In 2014, the Congressional Research Service explained in the authoritative “Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation” this amendment’s context related to became known as the Reconstruction Amendments after the Civil War.
“In the wake of the war, the Congress submitted, and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment (making slavery illegal), the Fourteenth Amendment (defining and granting broad rights of national citizenship), and the Fifteenth Amendment (forbidding racial discrimination in elections). The Fourteenth Amendment was the most controversial and far-reaching of these three ‘Reconstruction Amendments.’”
The National Constitution Center and our Constitution Center blog are publishing a special selection this weekend of articles to mark the anniversary on Saturday.
First, selections from our ground-breaking Interactive Constitution project look at three important 14th Amendment clauses from the perspective of six scholars. (Click here to read.)
Our Constitution Daily blog also looks at 10 historic Supreme Court cases about due process and equal protection under the law, including Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. (Click here to read.)
A special video from May 2016 at the Center showcases eight more experts discussing what became known as the Second Founding. (Click here to watch.)
And Tom Donnelly, a Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Center, writes about the unsung hero behind the 14th Amendment, John Bingham. (Click here to read.)
For the full text of the amendment, go to our 14th Amendment section page on the Interactive Constitution.
