The 14th Amendment, the “Second Constitution”

To state the obvious, race relations in the U.S. are not good at the present time. The shootings of two black men by police officers and the “revenge shootings” this month of on-duty police officers in Dallas and Baton Rogue are indicative of the racial tensions within the country.

As bad as things are, however, they are not nearly as bad as they were 150 years ago, in 1866. And largely because of what Congress did in June of that year, things are much better now than they were then—in spite of lingering problems.

My July 5, 2013, blog article was titled “Celebrating the Ninth of July” (see here), and it was largely about the ratification of the 14^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on that date in 1868. But I know a lot more about that amendment now than I did then.

I know more now largely because of reading the detailed book by Garrett Epps, Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America (2006).

Epps’s highly regarded book describes the torturous path toward drafting the 14^th amendment and getting it passed in June 1866. The Senate passed the new amendment by a vote of 33 to 11 on June 8 and five days later the House of Representatives passed it with a vote of 120 to 32.

Regarding the latter vote, Epps points out that no Democratic voted for it and no Republican voted against it (p. 239). (As I keep pointing out, today the positions of the two parties are completely reversed.)

The new amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed by the 13^th amendment. In addition, it 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.”

Connecticut promptly ratified the proposed amendment on June 30, followed by New Hampshire on July 6. Somewhat surprisingly, Tennessee, one of the states that seceded, was the third state to ratify the new amendment—and it was the only southern state to ratify it until forced to do so.

Since the other former Confederate states refused to ratify the amendment, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which imposed military government on those states until new civil governments were established and which also declared that each former Confederate state must ratify the 14^th amendment before “said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress.”

So, finally, the 14^th amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868, and that was of great significance—although much of it was not implemented fully for nearly 100 years.  

Even though a part of the deliberations about the 14^th amendment, voting rights for black men were not granted until the ratification of the 15^th amendment in 1870. And although discussed in connection with both the 14^th and 15^th amendments, voting rights for women of any color were not granted until 1920!

Still, in the words of Wake Forest University law professor James E. Bond, “The fourteenth amendment is a second American Constitution, the ‘new birth of freedom’ for which Lincoln had prayed at Gettysburg” (see here).

It was not, however, until the Brown v. Board of Education decision of the SCOTUS in 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that provisions of the 14^th amendment were implemented for many African-American citizens.

And, sadly, now more than 50 years later racial discrepancies still persist. 

Celebrating the Ninth of July

Yesterday was Independence Day in the U.S., but the Fourth of July is not one of my favorite holidays. For various reasons. But partly because the original Declaration of Independence, which was ratified on July 4, 1776, was the declaration of the independence (from British rule) primarily for white males in the Colonies.

While the words “all men are created equal” in the Preamble were later greatly emphasized by the abolitionists, slaves were certainly not considered equal to their white owners in 1776.

And while some might argue that “men” was a generic term, and not gender specific, women in fact were not given the right to vote until 144 years later!

Thus, rather than celebrating July 4, I suggest that it would perhaps be more appropriate for the people of this country to celebrate July 9. Why? Because the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on that day in 1868.

Through the years we have all heard much about the First and the Fifth Amendments, and recently especially about the Second Amendment. But for some reason many of us, at least I, have not heard as much about the Fourteenth Amendment.

In fact, it was not until I was in Little Rock in January 2011 and saw words of the Fourteenth Amendment emblazoned on the wall of the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center that I began to grasp the significance of that constitutional amendment.

On the Fourth of July many USAmericans pledge allegiance to the flag, which, by the way, was not written until 1892 and has been recited in its present version only since 1954. As you all know, that pledge closes with the words “with liberty and justice for all.”

But that was hardly the reality for many people in the U.S. for long, long after July 4, 1776. The Fourteenth Amendment greatly contributed toward making those words ring true.

And it is common to hear “The Star Spangled Banner,” the national anthem, sung on the Fourth of July. Even though we usually hear only the first verse sung, all four verses end with the words “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

But for decades after July 4, 1776, large numbers of people in the new nation were not free. But the Fourteenth Amendment helped to rectify that situation. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment includes these significant words

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.

Those are the words that led to the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in May 1954 and, consequently, to the integration of Central High School in Little Rock (and other schools) in 1957.

Ninety years earlier, in January 1867, Kansas became the ninth state to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and Missouri did so just two weeks later. Then when South Carolina ratified it on July 9, 1868, that meant that 2/3 of the states had done so. The amendment, therefore, became a part of the Constitution.

Yes, we USAmericans have, and will, celebrate the Fourth of July this week, as we should. But even though it is not a national holiday, let’s also celebrate the Ninth of July and commemorate the ratification of the highly significant Fourteenth Amendment.