U.S. Constitution & Civil Rights

Also read about the fight about revising the Alabama constitution in 2002.

U.S. Constitution [a web link to the U.S. Constitution]
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, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons [meaning slaves! -- modified by Amendment XIV].

Constitutional Amendments
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.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are referred to as the Reconstruction amendments because they resulted from the Civil War.

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.

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 20 February 1997.