Fourteenth Amendment Ratified
July 9, 1868 · 19th Century
Ratified on July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people, and guaranteed equal protection under the law. Drafted during Reconstruction under the leadership of Congressman John Bingham, it overturned the Dred Scott decision and established birthright citizenship. Its equal protection and due process clauses would become the constitutional foundation for nearly every major civil rights ruling of the twentieth century.
Key Figures
Frederick DouglassCharles SumnerJohn BinghamThaddeus Stevens
Locations
Washington, D.C.
Topics
civil rightsUSAafrican american historyconstitutional amendmentreconstructionequal protectioncitizenship
Connected Events — 8 Connections
Extended constitutional rights established by Thirteenth Amendment Ratified
Brown v Board ruled that school segregation violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause — the same argument Plessy had rejected 58 years earlier — overturning "separate but equal" Brown v Board of Education
Plessy's lawyers argued segregation violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, but the Court gutted that argument by ruling "separate but equal" satisfied the amendment Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court Decision
The Fourteenth Amendment was drafted specifically to overturn Dred Scott denial of citizenship to Black Americans, establishing birthright citizenship and equal protection Dred Scott v. Sanford
Completed voting rights begun by Fifteenth Amendment Ratified
Gutted equal protection clause of Civil Rights Cases of 1883
Applied equal protection guarantees of Fair Housing Act Signed into Law
Federal investigation documented equal protection violations 146 years after Shooting of Michael Brown
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