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Equal Protection Much as we might wish it to be otherwise, the original U.S. Constitution, as it went into effect in 1789, did not treat all persons equally. It recognized the existence of slavery. Slaves were counted as three-fifth of a person for purposes of representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and for purposes of direct taxation. (Art. I, Section 2, Clause 3). The importation of additional slaves was permitted until 1808. (Art. I, Section 9, Clause 1). And fugitive slaves, who had escaped from a slave state to a free state, had to be returned to the slave state and the slave owner. (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3). The individual liberties of the First Amendment, of which Americans are rightly proud, did not apply to slaves almost all of whom were Afro-Americans. Not until the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 and the enactment of the Civil War Amendments was slavery and the unequal treatment of slaves outlawed. The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1865 and outlawed slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in July 1868 and defined citizenship in such a way that all persons born on American soil were henceforth considered U.S. Citizens. Slaves freed through the 13th Amendment became citizens through the 14th. The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in February 1870 and provided that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Despite the clear language of this amendment, blacks in most southern States were denied the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These three amendments together are called the Civil War Amendments. These amendments gave to the National government new powers over the States. The Fourteenth Amendment is especially important. It contains three important clauses. "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."
Despite the Civil War Amendments, the former slaves of the Confederate States were again placed in an inferior legal position at the end of the Reconstruction period of American history. Beginning with the Hayes-Tilden election deal of 1876, reconstruction was brought to an end. Southern States enacted Jim Crow legislation and the national government winked at the denial of equal rights. In a number of dubious cases, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted segregation under the legal cover of the "separate but equal" doctrine. Even the U.S. Armed Forces were segregated during the Presidency of the supposedly liberal Woodrow Wilson. At the beginning of World War I, the United States was a thoroughly segregated society. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of blacks lived in the South and that most Northern whites saw segregation as a Southern problem and a matter of states rights. They did not see it as a national issue. Indeed, civil liberties in general were low on the agenda of national priorities. This is also the time of rapid industrialization, mass immigration from Europe, and a Social Darwinist attitude toward the weak. While America was undoubtedly the land of opportunity, it was also a country where "the devil take the hindmost" was the prevailing attitude. All minorities faced discrimination. World War I and World War II produced massive social changes in America. Those changes led to the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s and the end of legal segregation in the United States. It should be noted that the U.S. Bill of Rights did not fully apply to black Americans until well into the Twentieth Century. The Bill of Rights did not begin to apply to the States until the Gitlow v. New York (1925) case. (See Nationalization of the Bill of Rights). The Civil War Amendments are often called our Second Bill of Rights. For black Americans, civil liberties and rights become relevant only after adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment and the legal changes of the Supreme Court of Earl Warren from 1953 through 1969. Civil Rights Reconstruction Period In addition to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Radical Republicans of the Reconstruction Era also passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over President Andrew Johnson's veto before enactment of the 14th Amendment. Six additional acts were passed before 1875.
Segregation Established Reconstruction ended in 1877 after the election of 1876. The U.S. Supreme Court also turned its back on civil rights for blacks. The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 nullified the Second Civil Rights Act of 1875 by holding that the Federal government had no right to legislate directly against private discrimination. It could only act against state government, not private individuals. Discriminatory acts of private individuals were not illegal. Jim Crow legislation in the Southern States Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896 established the doctrine of separate but equal. Voting barriers. Civil Rights Revolution World Wars I & II Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma To Secure These Rights National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Bringing litigation to the courts. Showing that separate but equal was always separate but never equal. No black law school or medical school in Southern states.
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