Civil Rights in the Trump Era Teach-Out

As discussed in the previous segments regarding the history of civil rights under Reconstruction, Reconstruction leads to three Constitutional amendments and three key statutes. To read more on these amendments and civil rights acts, see the references below.

• The 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery. See the Library of Congress's Primary Documents Resource for historical context on the 13th Amendment.
• The 14th Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans, granting citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included recently freed slaves. It also forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” See the Library of Congress's Primary Documents Resource for historical context on the 14th Amendment.
• The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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." See the Library of Congress's Primary Documents Resource for historical context on the 15th Amendment.

Reconstruction also led to three key civil rights statutes: