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SlavAmendment 13 (Ratified December 6, 1865)

qqqqqqq Section 1. Neither Slavery, nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

qqqqqqqqSection 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

oAmendment 14 (Ratified July 9, 1868)

qqqqqqqq Section 1. 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

0oAmendment 15(Ratified February 3, 1870

qqqqqqSection 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

qqqqqqSection 2. This Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropiate legislation.

oooThese amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America brought new hope to the African American citizens of the United States but they, also, brought to them a new struggle. Basically, these amendments freed all slaves from slavery in the United States and gave them all rights of a citizen. With the exception of women, African Americans could vote, run for a public office, etc. Most importantly, they were given the right to due process, and equal treatment, which, before this point, were not guaranteed.

oooBefore the 13th Amendment which freed slaves in all of the United States, Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves from the Confederate States of America with a declaration called the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the states taken under military control after September 23rd 1862, it foreshadowed the fate of slaves in the United States. The more controversial of the two amendments by no doubt was the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his natural rights (life, liberty, and property) without due process of law, or denying to any person the equal protection of the laws.

qqqqThe 15th Amendment went a step further and gave Congress the right to enforce the voting rights of blacks. This amendment was enforced briefly in the 1870s but not until after 1960s.

oooAlthough rights were guaranteed to the newly freed slaves by the Constitution, most of these rights were not given. Some even fought against given them any of these rights all together. Segregation was one of the methods used to deny African Americans their rights.