U.S. Constitution & Civil Rights
Also read about the fight about revising the Alabama constitution in 2002.
U.S. Constitution -- no direct mention of slaves!Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, excluding Indians not taxed, and three fifths of all other Persons [meaning slaves! -- subsequently modified by Amendment XIV].
Constitutional
Amendments
The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are referred to as the Reconstruction
amendments because they resulted from the Civil War.
Amendment
XIII (abolishment of slavery)
1865
- 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.
Amendment XIV (defining citizens) 1868
-
All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens
of the United States. 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 any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.
Amendment XV (voting for black men) 1870
-
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.
Amendment XIX (voting for women) 1920
- 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
sex.
Amendment XXVI (voting age) 1971
- The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years
of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of age.
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