Question

Discuss the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution then discuss the erosion of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Answer 1

Ans: The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, that was adopted in 1868, addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. It granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in 1883. The court also said Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the 14th Amendment to grant equal protection under the law to anyone, stating that only states and local governments could do that. Following the amendment local and state legislatures passed laws segregating African Americans from White Americans. These were called the Jim Crow Laws and the federal government took no actions to stop these laws of segregation. Voting for male African Americans called for the blacks to pay a poll tax if they wanted to vote, again the federal government did nothing. There were also reading tests for African Americans to pass before they could vote, no slave was permitted to learn to read, and anyone who did teach slaves reading was severely punished. In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Plessy vs Ferguson said segregation was okay if the African Americans had equal facilities, the African Americans facilities were never equal to the white Americans' facilities. So the blacks were not allowed to be a part of society according to the local, state, and federal laws. Nothing changed until 1954 when Supreme Court decision in Brown vs Board of Education said segregation in public schools in the U.S. was illegal.